Extraneous
by VaVesi
Summary: They thought they knew all they needed to know about alternative realities. Until everything they thought they knew was proven wrong, and a proposition was made. Now Naruto & Naruko must somehow survive long enough in the past of a world that sees them as "Foreign entities" to save it. But there is one major snag. They're Toddlers. Rated T for mild violence/cussing.
1. Prologue I

**__**Extraneous**__**

* * *

 ** **Synopsis:**** Having had dreams about each others different worlds and lives, Naruto and Naruko were well acquainted with the idea of there being alternative universes out there, where things differed from their own respective worlds. When they made contact some where in the middle, and shared with each other the differences of their lives whenever they did, the two were pretty convinced that was the closest they could get to going to another 'world'.

But as each of their lives draws closer to an end, the two are approached by a pair of Otsusuki who pose to them a question that shatters everything they thought they knew about how alternative worlds work... and leaves them with a choice. But to two Shinobi who based their entire life on never giving up, protecting their important people, and cutting the chains of hate... well, there really isn't any choice at all. And that was how two children of prophecy from two different worlds found themselves tasked with saving a third.

Only problem is... they've got to start out as toddlers.

 ** **A/N:**** Hello readers~

Like **__**ID**__** , this fic is a mash up of canon and AU, but with considerably more AU elements than in it's companion story. After all there are __two__ AU's linked to this story, with the bulk of it taking place within one of them. You don't have to read **__**ID**__** at all if you don't want to, but it will give you more background information. Also like **__**ID**__** this fic has two prologues, the second of which will hopefully be up in the next couple days. The reason why i wrote two was because the story doesn't really begin until after the next one, but the diction between this one and the next prologue was to jarringly different to post them as one.

 ** **Disclaimer:**** Naruto does not belong to me, but to Kishimoto. All I can claim is my own plot.

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 _ _Prologue__ _ _I:__ ** **The Wrong End****

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He came to the conclusion that there had to be alternative realities out there after SWW 4. On the day he became Hokage he had irrefutable evidence to the truth of the existence of one such reality; in the form of a Female version of himself.

She __knew__ there were other realities out there before she understood what that really meant. She didn't put any thought into the idea of there being more than one until after the war, but she always believed that the one with a male version of herself __h__ a _ _d to__ exist somewhere.

Both knew of each other but had believed they would never meet. ****But they did.**** On a day when their two realities time lines were synced. The day of their inauguration as Nandiame Hokage, somewhere not quite a part of either of their universes.

As the years went by and they had more meetings in that same in-between place, they came to agree that actually going to another reality wasn't possible. They only ever seemed to meet when their time-lines synced up, there was no definite time between these occurrence, and they never met outside of that in-between place. If either of them were ever going to end up in another version of reality, surely it would have happened in the __decades__ they'd some how been connected to each other. Certainly it should have happened while they were meeting weekly in those first few years after becoming Hokage, if at all.

But it never did.

They forgot that both of them had visited two different realities, separate from each others.

They disregarded the fact that each of their realities had had a visit from two Sakura-chans from other realities.

They believed that their respective Biju knew all there was to know about how far contact with alternative realities could go. That in turn they had learned all they needed to know about it.

Oh how wrong they had been.

Certainly they'd wondered a bit about it before, on their own or together. But such instances only ended up in splitting headaches. If they'd moved beyond that they might have recognized the sense of unease that often indicated a feeling of incomplete knowledge. Instead they decided that they knew more than enough about it, as it was likely a one in some insanely high number chance that two parallels of the same person would ever meet as they did. There was no benefit to learn anything else.

How __very__ wrong they had been.

They wouldn't realize they were wrong until just before the very end. As death shadowed their mashed mindscape and they faced each other one more time. With the intense feeling that they'd rather not be face to face right now, able to see the shredded state of each other and know that the end was caving in on both of them. This was their __final__ meeting. It had to be. Though neither of them were ones to give up they could feel the life draining away from them even here, the scenery of their shared mindscape draining of colour as it did. It would take a miracle to survive this. Still, both struggled to leave this in-between place. To see the outside world and __live.__ To stick to their Nindo and __never__ give up. They told each other with misplaced conviction: __You will not die__ ** _ _ **today.**__**

How very __wrong__ they were.

Miracles didn't happen because you __wanted__ them to.

She admitted it first, and he protested. Insisted she not give up. She _wasn't,_ she told him, because she __believed__ in her friends, in her children. It was time to entrust the future to them. They wouldn't fail. Though he wanted to do more himself, he could only agree. They could only hope that they would get the chance to see that they were __right.__ But they were no fuinjutsu master, and had no chance to seal a part of their chakra into either of their children anyway. Nor was it at all likely they'd be revived with the edo-tensei. They had to be satisfied with their trust in those they would be leaving behind.

 _ _Again__ they were wrong.

As everything around them bled from grey ombre to ink black they said their final farewell to each other and waited for oblivion.

It never came.

Instead was the awareness that there was still water below their feet, and the strange familiarity of the black expanse before them.

This could be only one place. A place neither had ever expected to be again.

Clearly they __had__ been wrong.

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 ** **Word Count:**** _801_


	2. Prologue II

****A/N:**** Hello readers~

Decided it was best to get this up before I got on the plane up to work, seeing as I'm not sure if I'll be able to upload while I'm there (the site isn't blocked, but the internet connection is not at all the greatest.)

Hope you all enjoy~

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 _ _Prologue II:__ ** **An Insane Proposition****

* * *

 _Drip_

What?

 _Drip_

"Ne… Naruto?" Soft. Unsure.

 _Drip_

"Naruko?" Just as unsure, and clearly confused.

"We're supposed to be dead right?" the now tremulous female voice asked. Light splashing sounds could be heard as feet moved along the surface of water below them. "I mean… I thought that's what would happen when it went pitch black." The soprano voice grew a bit louder, and the feet moved faster on the water's surface. "Dead means not feeling anything anymore right? Or like… going to the pure world, or something that this clearly isn't, dattebayo!" The feet stopped, and silence stretched until they were aware of each others breathing.

"Maybe this is what it's like to be dead?" Naruto found himself responding. He could feel the frown on his face, but he couldn't see anything at all. Not even the blonde woman he knew was only a few feet in front of him.

There was a scoff unmistakably from that woman. "An eternity in our darkened mind-scape mash up? Sorry but I don't buy it, ttebayo" the woman responded, and he could practically picture her rolling her eyes. But there was something else he came to the realization of. Her voice was smooth, although still confused. It showed none of the fatigue that had been there before all fell into inky darkness. "I mean, I like you and all Naru-nii, but we're a bit too alike to get along for an eternity here in the dark."

Naruto grimaced at the idea. She was definitively right. If the lack of sight didn't drive either of them crazy, then that coupled with spending the rest of eternity with someone annoying similar to yourself was sure to drive a person crazy. Sure, Naruto liked Naruko. Thought of her sort of like a little sister, but that didn't mean he could stand being around her absolutely ever minute of every day even for a few days, yet alone with no end. Ever. "That would suck, ttebayo" He muttered, but the hum of acknowledgment told him she had heard it anyway. "Well at least you don't sound like your about to croak anymore."

"You too," the response came immediately, and there was relief in it. "That scratchy croaky voice sounded like crap. Sooo aggravating ttebayo." A sigh followed these words, before the sound of feet hitting water reached Naruto's ears again. "You looked even worse though… still hurt?"

Naruto shook his head, and then remembered that nothing could be scene. "No. Stopped awhile ago actually."

"Mmm… me to… So maybe this really is what death is like then…" A low groan followed these words, followed by a loud splash that was unmistakably Naruko stomping a foot. Naruto had to bite back a snicker. It had been awhile since she'd acted so childishly.

Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but no sound came out. Not because it couldn't, but because he stopped himself, lips still slightly parted, but eyes narrowing against what moments before he thought was impossible.

The water was emitting a soft yellow light. Although it wasn't much of a light, it was more than enough to hurt his eyes after the utter darkness of moments before. However there was another reason why this light made him hesitate. It was all to familiar.

The light of his minds-scape from years ago.

On one specific visit to be exact.

Exhaling sharply, Naruto snapped his head to his right, seeking out the figure of Naruko, fearing that she had disappeared and he was now alone. But she still stood there, her features blurry and and indistinguishable… but there. Gradually his vision cleared… or perhaps the light brightened. Naruto wasn't sure which, but he was soon able to make out Naruko's expression. Which was just as shocked and confused as his. Only she wasn't looking at him, but ahead of her.

"Who?"

The question that the blonde woman posed was to soft to have been intentional, but it hung in the air none the less. And had Naruto's gaze flying back ahead of him, searching.

Two figures that were little more than silhouettes were before them. One standing, the other sitting. Both didn't touch the surface of the water, floating just above it. But what stuck out the most was what both figures had in common. They either had horned head plates adorning their brows, or they actually had horns. And both had spheres floating around them.

The Horns immediately made him think of the Otsutsuki.

The spheres made him think of the Truth-seeker orbs.

"... Hagoromo o-jiji?" Naruko's clear but confused tone broke the silence, voicing what Naruto had been thinking.

There was a light laugh, as the features of the man who was floating in a seated position began to come into view. "Indeed." Moments later they could clearly make out the aged faced of the Sage of Six paths, who almost appeared to be grinning. "And one you do not yet know, but know of."

"Again with the confusing speech, ttebayo" Naruko muttered, but her attention had clearly already gone to the yet identified figure. "Well… judging by the orbs and horns and stuff, You're another Otsutsuki. And the only one that I can think of that I just know of would be Hamura."

"That would be myself," The second figure spoke, and slowly his pale features came into focus as well. White skin. Pale Byakugan eyes, and age that seemed to rival his older brother, strangely.

Naruto furrowed his brow in utter confusion. "What are you two doing here? I mean… last time I saw O-jiji over there was during the war," he stated point blank, pointing a figure at the older (yet younger appearing) brother. "And I only thought I was dead then. So… am I… are we not dead?"

Hagoromo's expression sobered, although it wasn't a frown either. More neutral, but in the eyes of the two Uzumaki's it was a bit daunting and forboding. "Well… Not yet at least. But this time I am afraid I must inform you both that there will be no recovery to fight again in either of your worlds."

A sharp intake of breath.

A slow exhale.

Naruko worried her bottom lip, eyes falling to the water's surface rather than look at the sage any longer. "So pretty much we are dead then," her voice quivered as she uttered the words lowly.

"Essentially, I would say so," another old, sort of gravely voice spoke. "We have nor come to grant you some miraculous escape from death, our a portion of our powers this time. Our mother is not there to be sealed once more." Hamura stated matter of factly. "Since the two of you lost consciousness in your worlds it's only been a matter of seconds. In two or three more you will die."

"Seconds?" Naruto found himself repeating incredulously. It felt like hours. He stared at byakugan wielding Otsutuki, willing him to amend his statement. That it was not true. Simply because another five or so hours of this before it was finally over would be torturous.

"Yes, that is indeed the case," The man said much to Naruto's displeasure. He felt the glare forming, and Hamura clearly noticed at, as a wry smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Naruto's glower darkened. "Time will pass more quickly from this moment onward, Male Child of Prophecy. Regardless of what course of action you or your female counterpart decide on pursuing."

A sigh of relief sounded from beside him, but the blonde man didn't bother to look at Naruko to see her expression. He was more interested in the multiple courses of action they apparently had if what this… slightly infuriating old mad hat to say was true. "So… What are the choices then?" He nearly snapped the question.

Hagoromo cleared his throat, drawing the two blonde's attention, although Naruto still clearly wore a glare. The older sage chose to ignore it. "Well, Either or both of you can decide that this is far enough for you, and move on to the pure world," He stated matter-of-factly. "Or you can choose to live new lives in another world, knowing you will never again set foot in the ones you were respectively born into. Or ever see your loved ones as you know them again."

Wide, incredulous blue eyes stared, mouths slightly agape. No response was immediately forth coming.

 _Drip_

Still the two blondes stared, perhaps not truly absorbing what they had just been told, or completely disbelieving of it.

"Brother, you forgot to mention the new world would try and reject their souls and attempt to cast them out into an abyss somewhere not quite a part of any reality," Hamura deadpanned. The words were dry, mater of fact, and almost dismissive.

"What the hell, Dattebayo!" Two voices rang out together, previously widened eyes now narrowing into twin glares leveled on Hamura, who seemed completely unperturbed by the nearly seething, still utterly confused looks. Hagoromo didn't seemed at all concerned about his brothers words however.

"Well… There is that," the older of the two murmured softly. "However, it is of very little consequence. If it does occur, their souls will eventually drift into some pure world, _somewhere_." His words, like his brother's seemed rather dismissive of the little tidbit, "Some **when.** "

"HEY! Why the **hell** would we wanna do that, Ttebayo!" Naruko shouted in exasperation, her blonde braid swinging with the sudden motion of her stomping a foot, kicking up quite a bit of water (splashing Naruto's ankles in the process), only to stomp again, fists clenched at her side. It was way too childish of a gesture for the grown woman that she was. Not that she cared.

"I cannot Fathom why either of you would make such a ludicrous choice," the younger brother responded boredly. "However, as both of you are lacking in certain departments of intelligence, my brother believes it is possible that you will choose to do so." His expression remained the same, but Naruto saw the slightest twitch in his torso, almost as if he had stopped himself from shrugging. "I am merely here to send you along if you make the highly unlikely and normally in-advisable choice to follow the aforementioned path."

Naruko practically growled at the man, her eyes narrowed into a beastly scowl. "Your words give me a head-ache…. Hey, o-Jiji! You take over explaining!" it didn't sound like a request, with how annoyed the woman clearly was.

Naruto certainly couldn't blame her though.

"Very well," Hagoromo responded, not at all bothered by her tone of voice, or the now slightly miffed expression his brother wore (although that disappeared moments later). "I shall start by saying… everything you have divined amongst yourselves about different realities is, a poor imitation of the truth at best, if not wholly wrong all together."

Silence from both blondes, aside from a short huff of Naruko.

"But The point of my brother and myself being here is not to educate you on the intricacies of other worlds and the flow of time that is likely beyond your comprehensions." Naruko's shoulders slumped at these words that were spoken in a tone near amusement. The movement seemed more one of relief than disappointment however. The corner of Hagoromo's mouth twitched, and his rinnegan eyes narrowed slightly in his amusement over her reaction. "Instead it is _first_ to tell you that it is indeed _possible_ to go to other realities, as you must have concluded when we spoke of a different path the two of you could take from here on out."

Silence, accompanied by a nod. Naruto felt that if he wasn't void of… well feeling, he'd probably have a bit of a headache. But so far he thought he was following most of it.

" **Secondly** , we have come to ask if the two of you will enter into one such world and live new lives there… creating a divergence from that world's path and thus birthing a new thread of reality," The sage explained.

And Naruto was lost. "Eeeh?" He clearly wasn't the only one.

The sage frowned for a moment, as if pondering how to make them understand, before he slowly began to speak once more, brow still furrowed (which sort of made the eye in his forehead bulge, which Naruko thought was creepy as all hell).

"There are many realities, and this is of necessity. Think of it as a tapestry, with versions of all the worlds being their own individual threads," the old man tried. Naruto scrunched up his own brow and tried to think of it like that. It sort of made sense. He nodded, and with a nod of his own the sage continued. "These thread intertwine together, creating and holding together the fabric of existence. When one ends the thread stops… but if too many end, then a hole will open up in the tapestry. Too many holes as the tapestry will start to fray before finally unraveling."

Naruto blinked. Naruko blinked. They looked at each other with furrowed brows, before Naruko looked back and spoke hesitantly. "So… existence is like a piece of cloth?"

The sage shook his head, causing Naruko to glower at him now. "It is far more complicated than that, however, if that is what you understand of it, then that suffices for our purposes."

"Cloth. Then." The female Nanadiame bit out vindictively. Naruto would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't concerned she'd stomp on his foot (not that he would even feel it.) "So… there's a world that came to an end and opened up a big hole in this cloth, is that what you're trying to say O-jiji?" Her voice sounded calmer now, but the twitch to her brow told Naruto otherwise. Well… they knew which one really had the shorter temper now.

"Yes, that understanding is sufficient. A hole has opened, and it is causing other realities to warp. If left alone, some of the threads could collide, which will make this 'hole' worse. So the hole must some how be pulled shut," Hagoromo explained calmly.

And Naruto thought he finally understood what the old man was saying.

"So… in other words you want to send us to this world that ended, some time before it ended and stop it from ending, right?" That had to be it right?

Hamura's shoulder twitched, but this time Naruto thought it was from stopping something else. His eyes narrowed at what that something else likely was.

Laughter.

"You cannot stop a world from ending when the thread has already been cut, no matter how far back in time you go," Hamura said almost condescendingly. Naruko and Naruto both glared at him once more. If their looks could kill (regardless of the fact that the man was still dead), Hamura would have died a dozen times over during this conversation. "the Threads cannot extend past where they end… but a new thread can split off from any thread before that end is reached."

What? New thread?

Hagoromo cleared his throat again, and the pair of blonds turned their once more confused looks back to him. "That is correct. You cannot stop that world from ending. We want you to instead create a new world thread that branches off from the one that has been cut."

Silence again. Naruto and Naruko looked back to each other, confused frowns and questioning looks were shared, and they both came to the conclusion that the other still had the same question. "Why us?"

It didn't matter which of them asked.

"Well, your two worlds happen to be two of the closest threads to the one that was cut," Hamura stated again in his no-nonsense, straight to the point, yet some how dismissive tone. Naruto decided he didn't like him. The sharp glare that returned to Naruko's gaze told him she agreed.

"So… I take it that this hole could some how… hurt our worlds then?" Naruto asked. He had to. He had to know if this would somehow risk his important people.

Hagoromo nodded gravely. "Your worlds will be fine some decades to come, but they are already starting to tangle. In six decades it is likely the barrier between them will break and the threads will try to merge." The grim look told the pair of hokage's that merging threads was not at all a good thing, though they had no idea why.

"Okay… So I'll do it, dattebayo," Naruto said with a shrug. "I mean, if I don't than it could screw up things for everyone else." Possibly kill them. Well, they would all die eventually. And sixty years down the road probably would mean all his friends were dead… but his kids. And their friends, future children, and _grandchildren_. They were all important to Naruto even if he hadn't met them yet.

Even though he would now never get the chance to.

He looked over to Naruko to see if she agreed, but found himself staring at a furrowed brow and uncertain eyes.

"O-jiji… if we go what exactly are we supposed to do there?" The woman's uncertainty was plain as day in her voice, and caused a frowning Naruto to look at her hands. They were trembling.

"Whatever you wish, so long as it causes a divergence from the ended world's time-line," It was Hamura who answered, but this time Naruko did not glare at him. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth, worrying it as she closed her eyes.

"Okay…. so when did it end then?" Naruto found himself asking. He needed to assuage some of Naruko's concerns, whatever they were. So she could make the choice for herself, whatever her decision might be.

"Six decades hence from your deaths," again, Hamura. Damn, he pissed Naruto off. Wait… what?

"How the hell are we supposed to stop something that happened after we died, dattebayo?!" Damn it, these Otsutsuki needed to stop catching him off guard with crazy words, and ridiculous expectations.

"Naruto, calm down," Hagoromo spoke gently, and with a sigh, the blue eyed man turned his attention back to the sage. "It is very simple. You two will be sent back to a time before your births. This world, like Naruko's and your own, originated from the same thread. It split from that thread in a time before your two worlds split when your genders were determined."

What.

"That's supposed to mean what, Jiji?" He was losing his patience. Though he didn't quite glare… all the glaring and confusion was honestly wearing him out (odd, could a nearly dead person in their mind-scape really experience fatigue when they felt no pain?)

"It means that it has not been separate from your world long enough to have a drastically changed history. In fact, the history is a near clone of the two of yours, with only a few, not as significant changes, such as personalities," again, Hamura. Shut up byakugan Ji-ji.

"Which means?" his irritation laced his voice heavily, although he didn't glare at the other old man this time. His eyes remained fixed on the sage instead.

"Change a major part of the history you know, and you will create a divergence," And there it was. At last.

Change the history that he knew. Right. Simple enough he supposed? Maybe? Depending on how far back they were sent? Because he wasn't a history buff.

He nodded.

Never giving up was who he was. He was going to do this.

"Will you go, Female child of prophecy?" Hamura. Again. Seriously.

Naruko's eyes snapped open, and she glared into the pale ones of the younger brother.

"Damn straight, I'm going! Now shut up and send us, dattebayo!"

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 ** **Word Count:**** _ _3334__

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 ** _ _ **To the Reviewers:**__**

 _ _LucilliaNovaDreyar:__ I'm glad you've taken and interest and are enjoying it so far. Thank you for your kind words~

 ** **Thanks for the reveiws~****


	3. Ch I : Second Firsts

**A/N:** Hello readers~

So here's the first real chapter.

I'm still up at work right now, but using the copy & paste option I was able to upload this. It's possible this could be the last update I'll be able to make while I'm up here, but I'm on nights right now which actually amounts to a lot of sort of free time, so there is a chance I could get another update or two out.

Hope you all enjoy~

* * *

 _Chapter I_ _:_ **Second Firsts**

* * *

The first time she was able to see again, she screamed out her intense relief.

Or she tried to.

All that met her ears was a wail. An infant's wail.

And then there was a blurred face and soothing murmurs that soon turned into frantic whispers to "Be calm Girl," as the wailing continued despite her not attempting to make any sound at all.

All too soon after that she was back in the dark again. Alone.

She knew it couldn't have been that long. She knew what she'd been told before this lack of all surroundings had blanketed her and the one she thought of as a brother faded from sight.

 _"_ _You have to be born there."_

The pale eyed geezer had said that. Naruko had just about had kittens.

 _"_ _It's only your_ ** _souls_** _going to the other world."_

O-jiji had added. That didn't make it any better.

But the bastards had said that they would seal away their respective consciousness' in the back of their infant minds until their new bodies could handle them being in control; supposedly so that the years it would take to be functional would pass seemingly as days.

But her first sight of the new world had been from the eyes of a baby. A baby with the lungs of a newborn judging from that wail.

Did that mean the new world was already trying to toss her out? Just before they had disappeared the horned brothers had issued some sort of warning about the seal's rate of deterioration being sensitive to the world's reaction to their soul's presence there. She thought they had mentioned that it was possible the seal could break before their bodies reached the projected age.

Not that she knew when that was supposed to be.

There was nothing she could do with a body that only ate, slept and shit. This could end up being a pathetically short second life. But if this was just the first signs of the seal deteriorating, maybe there was time left for her to gain the needed motor functions to do something else aside from those three things. She had no idea how this 'seal' thing worked, or even what the Byakugan ji-ji had meant by the world rejecting their souls. So she really had no idea what to expect.

Was that what had happened? Was this void actually somewhere not quite a part of any world? Or was she simply back in the seal that kept her adult mind from her infantile one? There was no way to know for sure, unfortunately. All she could do was wait.

Wait for something, anything to happen.

For the first time since her academy days, trying to put herself in Naru-nii's shoes would do her absolutely no good. He was in the same boat as she was, though she didn't know where. He was starting as a baby just like she was.

So instead she fervently hoped that Naruto was having better luck than her.

* * *

The first comprehensible words he heard reached him while he was in the darkness. He had no idea if his infant shell was awake or not. The words didn't start off comprehensible either.

At first he was simply aware of a smooth, calculating male baritone.

And then was a voice he thought sounded similar to the one that had soothed the baby boy the only other time he had been aware of what was going on in the outside world. In contrast to the soothing, quite tone of that instance however, her voice was harsh, and most certainly a touch above regular speaking volume.

"They've just been born. There's no way to know yet."

Just born? Damn, he'd hoped that it had at least been a couple months.

Wait… know what exactly? Whatever it was, the woman's voice was rather hostile about the subject.

"Just gut one of them," the man spoke, a dangerous edge now to his voice. "If the other one squeals, we'll know."

Gut one? He wasn't talking about babies was he?

There was a wail nearby. One he knew belonged to an infant. Fuck… the man had been talking about gutting a baby as if it was normal.

"And if the first one dies, you'll handicap the surviving one," the female voice shot back, her voice now holding the slightest hint of desperation. "Put h- It down."

There was a moment where all he could hear was the distressed wails of the other infant. He had no idea if the man had put it down… or how he'd been holding it to begin with. Somehow, he couldn't picture the owner of the cold voice to have been holding the infant properly.

Then there was a resounding thwack.

It took him a moment to realize that someone had just been hit.

"Don't take that tone with me," the man's voice spat. Obviously it was him who had hit the woman. "Silence it. Or I will gut it."

Then once more it was just the wails that met his ears. Nearly a minute passed before he heard anything else again.

"Hush girl. You must be quiet," came the woman's voice. It was a gentler tone, but it showed no attachment. The tone was clearly only soft to try and get the infant to be quiet, not because there was any affection for the baby from the speaker.

So the other infant was a girl?

And he and the girl had both been born just recently. Could they be twins? That's what made the most sense. Why would they both be together with just this woman and the dangerous sounding man?

Were the two their parents?

Naruto hoped not… even though that meant that they'd been snatched away from whomever their real parents in this world were.

* * *

Being an infant was far from pleasant on the nose. Damn she could really stink up a room! It didn't help that she was always next to another baby either. Who could make a stink just as well as her (she thought he was worse actually).

But it wasn't as bad as what had to be done whenever she made that stink. Damn, wearing a diaper was embarrassing. And very uncomfortable . It didn't help that there must only be a total of four cloth diapers for the two infants. Sometimes it would be over an hour that she'd be aware of the world, while enduring a full, sodden diaper. And then the diaper that replaced it would still be damp from washing.

It was a miracle that her baby shell hadn't gotten deathly ill from the unsanitary state she was often left in.

What the hell were these people doing? This was no way to treat a pair of babies! They needed to be kept clean and warm.

And **Fed**.

Hunger was becoming an all too familiar feeling for her to 'wake up' to. The poor baby's wails for attention usually only got an embrace and soothing words, or an urgent request to be quiet. Naruko felt that the baby her was barely being fed enough to survive.

It really was a miracle that she hadn't died yet.

The other baby wasn't being treated much better, as far as she could tell. He wailed just as much as she did.

And that wasn't the worst of it.

On several occasions she'd had the sensation of being upside down, hanging above something that smelt heavily of death and decay. A cold voice always accompanied these occasions. A threat. And a progressively more desperate plea not to drop the infant each time this had occurred.

Whoever the man was she positively hated him already. She hoped he was not her father.

The woman who tended to them was a little less distant compared to what she had been in the start. Still, it seemed to Naruko that she had no love for the two infants. She hoped she was not her mother.

Through it all, Naruko kept asking two questions.

Where were her parents in this world?

 **Where was Naruto?**

* * *

Catching snatches of the outside world in sight, sound and smell was nothing short of frustrating. He couldn't actually do anything; he was simply along for the ride. He had no sense of how long it had been either. Sometimes it felt like days in the void went by before he caught a glimpse of what was going on in the world again. Sometimes it seemed only like hours. It was nearly impossible to tell how time was passing outside.

All he knew was that there had been snow and a deathly chill the fourth time he'd been able to see out of his infant eyes. And now, it was unbearably hot.

To make matters worse he had absolutely no control of his body. None

He'd watched on many occasions as his hands had reached out for the woman, or for the bottle she was offering to him. They were not movements that he willed to happen. Nor could he stop himself from crying at hunger or the discomfort of his diaper.

Being trapped in a baby's head was going to drive him absolutely crazy.

At least he must be nearing a year old now right? There had been some baby talk, some attempts at real words, and a bit of crawling though no attempts at walking. Plus he suspected it had been fall (maybe very early winter) when they'd been born, and now it appeared to be summer if the heat was any indication.

But what was that acrid smell?

Smoke?

Shit. That's exactly what it was. There was a fire. A fucking **fire**.

His little lungs burned, and he could hear wails, before they broke down into coughing, and then silence. He felt like he was being suffocated. But he had just enough presence of mind to also notice the sensation of being moved. Quickly. Roughly.

His body was bouncing in what must have been a burlap sack, torn open and converted into a sling that held him, and the female baby to the back of the woman. At least, he thought it was the woman. The ride was rough, constantly jostling him against the other baby and the bony back of whomever was carrying them.

And then cold air hit them, shocking the infant into more, sputtering wails.

Naruto barely had time to consider what this might mean before he found his consciousness separating from his body and was landed back in the darkness.

It wasn't Summer. It was _Fall_ again.

* * *

When she found herself staring up at the sky, freezing to the bone, Naruko couldn't help but be utterly confused. It wasn't because of a damp diaper, or blanket that was swaddling her that she was so cold either. The cold was in the air, and it was under her. Whatever she was lying on felt practically like ice. And it was more unforgiving then the thin, old futon she was usually laid down upon.

That was definitely sky above her, not a ceiling.

She was outside.

Why in the world was she outdoors, and seemingly laid down on the ground?

It was no surprise when baby started wailing. Of course she wouldn't at all like this very uncomfortable, and cold position she was now in. But did she have to scrunch up her eyes as she cried? Naruko couldn't see the outside world like this, to try and figure out what was going on.

The sky had been a rather vibrant blue however. Autumn?

She knew that they had been born around autumn, but she also knew they were older than a month or two from the motor functions her little shell had. So she now had an idea of how old she really was in this new world. About a year. A year was better than a newborn. But she hadn't yet started standing up… at least not in any of the times she'd been aware of what her little body was doing. This was slightly concerning… but it probably had to do with the fact that she was definitely undernourished.

Finally the wailing quieted some as she felt the warmth of a pair of hands lifting her up from the ground. She was soon able to see what was around her again, and found herself staring at the face of the Woman. Not that that was unexpected. It was almost always this woman, with blonde-silver hair that tended to her and the male baby.

But now the woman's pale skin was coated in what looked suspiciously like ash. And her soothing voice lacked the urgency it had almost always had for her to be quiet. Had they left the place where that cold voiced, sinister asshole had kept them? Naruko had gotten the impression that the woman was little more than a prisoner there. The room she had always seen had no windows, and only one door leading out of it. And the one and only time she had seen beyond before now was the briefest glimpse through a window in the hall that showed her fall leaves, near the beginning.

At least she assumed they had been fall leaves. At the time colours had been rather muted to her eyes.

The woman held her up, a frown on her face, and a dark look in her grey-blue eyes. "I've got nothing to feed you girl. We have nothing but the clothes on our backs," she murmured softly, before worrying her bottom lip. Of course, the Woman had no idea that Naruko actually could understand her.

"Baah BAH ma," tumbled past her little lips, and Naruko inwardly sighed. Damn baby babbling.

The woman's expression softened marginally however. "Is that so? I suppose you're right… We'll just have to go find some food." Of course, she was more talking to herself than responding to anything intelligent, but clearly the silly baby talk had eased the woman's tension some.

Okay, maybe baby babling wasn't so bad.

Not for the first time, and likely not the last, Naruko found herself wondering if the woman was their mother. From what she'd had seen looking at the other baby, he had blonde hair and blue eyes like the woman (his hair was too dirty to tell what shade of blonde). Maybe when she started really talking, and could control it, she'd be able to find out from the woman herself.

"Oo… Oo gaah," fell past her lips, sounding like more senseless babbling. But Naruko started… that had been her. Her lips had moved on her desire to try and say O-ka, to find out once and for all the identity of the woman.

"Now then, Lets gather up your bro- the Boy and get going," the woman spoke as if the baby in her arms had not just attempted to call her mother.

Either she didn't notice, or chose to ignore it.

However Naruko didn't fail to catch the word the woman had almost said.

 **Brother.**

Well, at least she finally knew she in the male baby were in fact related. Twins in fact.

* * *

"Goodness! You look terrible!" A concerned voice rang out from nearby, rousing the babe from slumber and pulling Naruto's consciousness into high alert.

This was the first new voice he'd heard in what must have been at least a month.

"Oh! Oh my, you have children," the concerned female voice grew in pitch. Unfortunately Naruto could not see the speaker, his eyes staring at the grimy cloth of the Woman's shirt. "Please come in! We need to get you three cleaned up and fed. Those poor dears." The female carried on, clearly ushering them indoors.

Finally they were out of the bitter cold.

"What in the world were you thinking, travelling about with two small ones like that, without a coin to your name by the looks of it?" this was now admonishing, disapproving.

"We hadn't expected twins… all our savings ran out months ago" the Woman started, and Naruto knew that the emotions were exaggerated. She sounded so forlorn. "My husband wanted to move to a new village where he would have more work, but he was killed on our travels," she went on, her voice sounding totally devastated. You could hear the tears, seemingly choking the words.

"Oh, I'm so sorry dear," came the now pitying tone of the other woman. "What a terrible tragedy… Well, don't you worry about a thing now. We don't have a lot to spare, but I can ask around town. We'll get you back on your feet, you'll see."

"Thank you… thank you so much," the woman gushed in feigned gratitude.

But Naruto already knew that they wouldn't be sticking around here. This wasn't the first place where the Woman had taken advantage of the pity and kindness of others. It had been awhile since the last time, certainly, but this woman was no stranger to pulling at the heartstrings of others to get things they desperately needed, and then leaving without a word. They'd probably be gone before this woman woke in the morning, like they had done several times before now.

It wasn't going to be the last time, either.

"Please, no need to thank me," the kindly sounding woman had responded. "It's just the right thing to do." She sounded so matter of fact about it. Naruto was a little surprised by how helpful this woman was being compared to some before. They usually were only given some food, a change of clothing, and one night (along with a bath so they would not smell up the place).

"By the way… are they both boys?" the woman asked curiously.

"Oh, no. the smaller one is a girl. She was born second," The woman replied back with a cheery, relieved sounding voice. This wasn't the first time this question had been asked. It wasn't the first time the woman had responded this way either.

With every other question her answer changed for each new home that offered them hospitality.

"Goodness me… Sorry little darling. I thought you were a boy because of your clothes," the second woman cooed from near Naruto's ear. "What are their names?"

Names…

Naruto tuned out the rest of the conversation. After all, whatever names the Woman gave would be different from the ones she'd given last time, and the ones that would follow. They didn't have names.

At least he had solved the mystery of which of them was older. _Probably._

* * *

Who would have thought that feeling your body walk so unsteadily, while you couldn't actually control it would be so utterly terrifying? Or a baby… well, Toddler, being just that.

But being only a spectator as your body toddled and tumbled about, dangerously close to drop offs, running water, or other hazards commonly found outside… Well a child's curiosity stopped feeling like a good (or simply annoying) thing and turned into something highly undesirable.

You'd think, given how malnourished she was, that she would run out of energy a lot sooner than she seemed to. Damn, her little body could _go_. And the Woman was far from impressed one she got away from her. Or when both of them did.

Sure, they were both still learning how to motor about, but that honestly made watching it from the sidelines more nerve wracking. Toddlers simply didn't know their limits. Apparently under-fed and underweight toddlers were not much different. After her little body had taken its first shaky steps it almost immediately tried to run. Which of course had resulted in her little face being introduced to the dirt.

Naruko wanted more than anything to be properly mobile and in control of her little body… if only there was a way to skip over this damned toddling stage.

At least the baby talk was slowly giving way to actual words now.

If only she'd been able to choose her first word. But alas, it had been beyond her control, like almost everything had been so far. At least the word wasn't an embarrassing first word. In fact, it was kind of disappointing.

And quickly becoming aggravatingly _annoying_.

"Boi-ee. Boi-eee," came an excited squeal that she recognized as her own, as her little feet hastily moved to try and chase down her blonde haired brother, hands stretched out in front of her. Seriously… it sounded as if that was his name. Did her shell actually think that?

The division between herself and the toddler on the outside was becoming increasingly worrisome.

What would she do if this toddler formed a whole personality of its own? Would that mean she'd be stuck on the inside?

She sincerely hoped that wouldn't be the case.

* * *

The first time he was able to control his new eyelids he had opened them to the sight of a face he had already learned.

He didn't actually know **who** the Woman was; just that she was tired looking, with dull blue eyes, deep frown and worry lines marking her face, framed by silvering blonde hair; the colour masked by days of dirt and grime from sleeping in various out-of-doors hide-a-ways. Her skin was pale from stress and poor health, dark circles hallowing her weary eyes. These features were not as well masked by the state of uncleanliness the woman was coated in.

Her haggered features were further shadowed by the dark of the night, but his memories of seeing her in the light of day filled in the blanks.

She was little more than skin and bones, her hands looking almost skeletal; if it wasn't for the thick scars that covered nearly every inch of skin in a patchwork pattern. Her clothing was haphazardly stitched together from grunge covered scraps of cloth, stains of unknown origin layering the makeshift garments to the point that it was impossible to tell what any of the original colours were.

The woman was dying.

Yet the concern on her sallow face was not for herself, but him.

Oh, he didn't know **who** this woman was in this world; what her name was or where she came from. But he did know _who_ she was to him.

His Mother; At least in this world.

He also knew she was on the run, though he wasn't sure exactly why; just that it had something to do with that cold voiced man. However her present condition was not a result of trying to escape someone (since they had never tried settling anywhere, he assumed they were being pursued), or even the conditions she had escaped from. No, it was because she gave everything to them first, and neglected herself.

Yet she had never called him… either of them by name. He didn't think he had one.

No, he _knew_ he didn't have one.

"Go back to sleep, Boy," was the hoarse whisper that made its way past the dry cracked lips of the fragile looking woman.

He did not want to. But his body still was not in his control. It gave a little nod before rolling over to acquiesce with the instruction. The ground was much too cold and uncomfortable for the small body to sleep well on… But said body was much too tired for sleep to elude him completely.

Still, he willed his eyes not to close.

And he found himself staring into a pair of round, vibrant blue eyes. Not for the first time he wondered who was behind those eyes. Was it the one the Woman saw, or someone like himself?

As his eyelids disregarded his command to stay open, his gaze moved to the small pair of lips that belonged to those nearly incandescent blue eyes. Just before the lids closed shut and sealed him away in darkness, he caught sight of a single mouthed word that gave him the answer he'd been pondering about for what felt like months.

 _Naru_

So it was then that Naruto knew that in their new lives he really was 'Nii-chan'. Naruko's new body was the younger twin of his own.

But how much longer was he going to be relegated to the back corner of a _toddler_ 's mind?

* * *

The first time in this new world that she had to stop words from tumbling out inadvertently was a direct result of letting several words fly past her lips that she _shouldn't_ _have known_. She hadn't known she shouldn't know them…. but she probably ought to have.

She swore it was _all_ Naruto's fault.

It had started with her exercising her new found ability to control her tiny mouth whenever she was actually aware of the outside world. Which she estimated was nearly three quater's of the time that her little body was awake.

Naruto hadn't responded to Boy. Boy was all the woman ever called him, like she was simply Girl. That was also all their little voices had called each other. Still he hadn't responded, even when she called him again.

"Talkin to Baka-nii!" had tumbled past her lips… and she immediately could feel the pressure of the Woman's gaze. Apparently she shouldn't have said 'Baka' or 'Nii'. she inwardly cursed as the woman grabbed her shoulder, and turned her around so they faced each other.

"Where did you learn _Baka_ and _Nii_ from, Girl."

She had almost said 'from Ka-san', but at the last second had remembered that they had never actually called this woman that. So she had just pointed at the Woman in hopes that would be the end of it.

The fragile woman had looked absolutely terrifying, eyes hard as steel, and Naruko realized that the woman must never had said either word in front of her. Crap.

"You _didn't_ learn it from me."

Naruko had no idea what to say. She stared blankly at her mother until in the end she just muttered "dunno… heard somewhere," while she averted her eyes. She could feel the piercing stare still fixed on her, but hoped that if she did not look back into those eyes the Woman would let the matter drop.

A minute felt like hours, but finally the gaze was turned away, and the woman was ushering them on, taking their small pudgy hands in her skeletal ones. Naruko couldn't help but notice how the Woman's grasp on her hand was almost painful.

* * *

The first time he used his new voice he didn't immediately realize he had control of it. A pained cry had erupted from his tiny lips as his little body was lifted up by his grimy, blonde locks. Teary eyes blurrily glared at the dark skinned culprit, who was sneering at him, showing off rotting, yellowed teeth. The stench of the man's breath burned his nose and caused him to gag. At keast, he thought it was a man.

"Haruka, Hand over the other brat," the sinister, callous voice had spoken, wafting around more of the rotting odor.

If he could command his body, Naruto would have struggled to try and get away… or at least see where his mother and sister where. His mother never responded verbally, so he didn't even know what direction she could be in.

Instead bile rose in the back of his throat at the cretins next words.

"Surely you don't want to die for the products of **rape.** "

Naruto's small eyes widened, and then another gasp of pain fell past his lips as he was roughly swung about by his captor. But the motion was enough for him to catch sight of the Woman and the tiny Girl.

With a shadow hanging over them.

And a glint of metal.

"Ka-San!"

It was supposed to be just a thought. Not a child's scream bursting desperately from his mouth.

The world erupted into blinding motion.

There was the sound of clashing metal, several wet thunks, and then the sensation of flying through the air before his head collided with the unforgiving wood of a tree.

The once man was knocked out cold.

* * *

The first time Naruko's body moved the way she wanted (or as close to it as tiny hands and short limbs could manage) was also the first time events in this world had genuinely terrified her. It wasn't for herself that she was afraid, but for Naruto; who was dangling by his hair in the grasp of a dark skinned, sinister eyed nuke-nin (at least she thought he was a rogue shinobi).

She wanted to rush over and help her brother in whatever way she possibly could. However, years of experience eventually taught her to recognize when rushing in was _not_ the best option. The best choice right now was to stay perfectly still and silent, while she was practically glued to the back of the Woman's leg.

Until Naruto had called out, that is.

And she was being pushed roughly to the side.

Instinct kicked in, and her child's body did it's best to follow through, twisting awkwardly as her hands thrust out to catch herself before her face could meet the dirt. Not that the impact on her hands was painless. Despite herself she let out a cry as the impact ran up her short arms, leaving them momentarily numb afterwards. And then the sounds around her registered.

Metal on Metal.

Metal through _Flesh_.

She willed her body to stand, and it did, though her legs trembled slightly. She was aware that whatever was going on, she had to get out of the way. As fast as her tiny feet could take her, she moved to the nearest tree, and then froze. There had been the unpleasantly recognizable sound of a body hitting dirt.

 **Move** **,** she thought vehemently. Now was not the time to allow her child shell to dictate _any_ of her actions.

Her small frame heeded her command and spun around, putting the tree squarely at her back. Her eyes quickly sought out the fallen, needing to know who it was. A sigh of relief very nearly escaped her lips when her eyes landed upon the who.

It was the fiend that had held her brother hostage. With his partners kunai buried in his throat.

She had to fight against the child's urge to scream and cover eyes as the man drew his final, gurgling breath. Then the light from his eyes faded, and he was dead. Not that the sight of a body impaled through the neck, blood still spurting, was much less grotesque than a living man impaled through the throat, gasping futilely for air.

In the end she had to look away.

And then her eyes landed on the limp form of her brother, sprawled face first across the roots of a massive Magnolia tree. Her eyes shot away immediately, seeking out the Woman and the remaining adversary.

She couldn't see either, but she could certainly hear them. Up in the tree branches above their heads and to the right. Metal on Metal.

She had to chance it.

 _Move_ _,_ she demanded of her body once more. Tiny feet pushed off the ground a little too hard. They stumbled a few steps, got caught on a root and sent her tumbling into a roll. Then her feet were under her again, and pounding hard on the dirt and dry leaves of the forest floor to transport herself to her selected destination.

Not used to being made to work so quickly or so hard, her legs gave out on her not long after she really got going. But by then she'd nearly made it to the boy, and she ignored the stinging pain in her knees after they hit the ground, pulling herself closer to the limp body in a near crawl. Tears threatened to overflow from her blue eyes, but she fought them back as she reached out to her fallen family.

He was still breathing.

But there was the unmistakable red of blood further matting his grime covered hair.

She may not be any sort of medic nin, but she did know that blows to the head could be very dangerous. He could have a concussion.

He might not wake up again.

Frantically she placed her trembling hands on his little shoulder, grunting slightly as she tugged and pulled until she managed to flip him onto his back. Maybe she shouldn't have moved him though? Panic began to fill her, knotting her stomach, and tipping the scale in favour of the tears she had not shed moments before. Shaking hands now on his chest, she tried to shake him, only one desperate thought on her mind.

 _Please wake up_

And then another body hit the ground.

* * *

 **Word Count:** _5483_

* * *

 _ **Thanks for the Reviews~**_


	4. Ch II: Mother

**A/N:** Hello readers~

Here's another chapter, courtesy of the 'free' time I have while working nightshift. There's a 50/50 chance I will get one more chapter up while I'm up here. I'm thinking I'll post it during my last shift, or while I'm waiting to board the plane, so that would be the tail end of the 22nd, or the 23rd in the morning; if it isn't up then, it'll be posted the same day as the next _**ID**_ chapter. For those of you who are following **_ID_** as well, The next chapter for that one will be the first thing I post when I get back, so expect it between the 25th and 28th.

Hope you all enjoy this chapter~

* * *

 _Chapter II_ _:_ **Mother**

* * *

There was something strange about the two. Sometimes their eyes held an awareness that shouldn't be possible for only being twenty-two months old… and she'd been noticing this from time to time since they were only three months. At first the awareness and knowledge she spied in their eyes would never last more than a few minutes… but as they got older, these instances became more common, and lasted longer. It left her frequently wondering… why did she see such in their eyes, when their actions did not change from what was normal for a child?

That was probably how she'd started to feel genuinely attached. How the hate had slowly been pushed to the side… leading instead to the guilt.

It also concerned her. Was this perhaps a sign that they had what _he_ sought? At first her concern was only that she keep it from his grasp if this really was the reason he had done what he had to her… and the others. But with the hate being sidelined, and the guilt building, the concern shifted towards their well-being.

She didn't genuinely care about them when she had made her move though. No, it was still a mix of guilt and a fear of giving that man what he wanted that had driven her actions then. That had brought her to starting the fire as a distraction to allow her to escape with the two, who were just shy of thirteen months at the time.

She did not help any of the others.

She'd carry that guilt to the day she died.

It once almost drove her to abandoning the two in the snow a month later. In fact, she had left them alone for an hour, telling them to wait there as she sought out food and shelter, when she had actually intended to never come back.

But she'd abandoned the others to save those two.

And it _wasn't_ their fault.

The very same guilt that made her want to abandon them was what had driven her back to them, and forged her determination to keep them alive. That and the realization that if he wanted the pair so badly, then they could be the means to his destruction just as easily. It was purely for these selfish reasons that she had neglected herself in favour of tending to them from then on.

And then, for brief moments, their actions started to mirror the strange intelligence she occasionally caught in their eyes.

Words that she was fairly sure they had never heard came past their lips. Sometimes their speech changed from stumbling, short toddler sentences to something a _little_ more comprehensible.

And then there was the sense that they _knew_ she was their mother, though she never said it. Never referred to them as her children after they'd started to learn to talk. She hadn't even named them. They were just Boy, and Girl.

Not naming them was an effort to distance herself from them. First so as not to pin all her hate for that man on the two infants who's only crime was coming from the seed of that filth. Now in an effort to prevent her from growing more attached… from genuinely caring.

It was a losing battle.

They were special. There was just something _different_ about them.

The occasional sad smiles she spied on one of their faces.

The knowing eyes when she denied them comfort.

The concern for her when she offered them food and went without.

It was unnerving. There was just something distinctly not _toddler_ about her two toddlers. One moment the brats were as brats should be. Full of aggravating energy and curiosity… and then suddenly they were subdued and thoughtful.

But nothing that had happened before today's events made her wonder as much as what had occurred in the last few hours.

The Boy had called her Ka-san. It wasn't a word she had ever taught them, nor one she believed they had ever heard. She knew they knew she was their mother, but they shouldn't have the word for it.

The Girl hadn't froze up as most children should have given the situation. As she listened to the sounds of battle and faced down violence, the girl had moved with purpose (although awkwardly so) to put her back to a tree… and then later to her brother when she saw his unconscious form

She shouldn't have been watching the girl so acutely. Shouldn't have allowed herself to be so distracted. If she had been paying attention to the second man more closely, she wouldn't have endangered the pair even more.

But she also wouldn't have seen _that_.

She'd glanced at the girl and boy in concern one too many times. Left herself open. And her opponent had taken that opening, kicking her hard in the ribs and sending her crashing to the ground next them. The girl had let out a startled squeak.

The boy had woken up.

She caught a glimpse of his blurry eyes just as she heard the whirring sound of metal. A Kunai.

Flying right towards the boy.

 _He caught it_.

Not without slicing his hand open in the process and covering his arm in his own blood. But he still _caught_ the thing.

He wasn't yet two years old, had only been walking for the last five months, and had never received any sort of training (less than two was a bit young for training in any case). But he had caught a kunai aimed to incapacitate. Meant to seriously harm.

 _Most_ children who had the training and could manage to do that were _at least_ twice his age. They weren't barely toddlers… they'd learned to move well enough that they certainly didn't awkwardly toddle about like the Boy and Girl did.

Her adversary had been just as shocked as her at what the boy had accomplished.

She'd had the presence of mind to use the opening this provided to end it. The Kunai was out of the Boy's hand and into her own as she ignored the pain in her own body to push herself back to her feet and launch herself at the dark robed figure.

By the time he realized what she was about, the Kunai was pressed against his chest, ready to sink into his flesh.

Hot blood splattered against her face and hands as she yanked the blade out before driving it back into him again and releasing the Kunai from her grasp.

Neither the Boy nor Girl flinched when they saw the blood. Their eyes just took it in… almost sadly.

The twins… her son and daughter, were very _peculiar_.

* * *

She'd never really thought the woman had it in her to put up a fight. Clearly she had been wrong. Despite her fragile, wasted frame, their new mother could fight.

Could kill.

Naruko hated death. Hated killing.

Oh, she'd killed before… but she'd always, _always_ tried to find a solution that didn't involve killing her opponent first. When she had the time. When doing so wouldn't mean someone else died. So it wasn't really always in the end.

She hated that fact.

She hated more the truth that she felt no remorse for the death of their two assailants. None. She should feel some. She always had before. Her thoughts would be drawn to the family or other important people the now deceased might have, and she had silently wept for them in her thoughts (sometimes she actually did weep, once she was alone). There was also the regret that more hatred had been sown.

She felt none of that now.

Thoughts of those these two men could have considered important were twisted into _they're probably just as bad as them_. The stark difference from her usual thoughts left her dumbfounded, eyes wide as they stared at her mother and the man she had just killed.

The Woman however was looking past her, her blood covered face turned towards Naruto. Slowly Naruko followed the woman's gaze, looking to the boy that her counterpart now was. A shuddering gasp escaped her lips at the sight that met her.

Naruto's right arm was covered in blood.

Yet his eyes were wide and alert (despite the fact that he was slightly swaying and looked sickly pale). They held the woman's… Haruka's gaze firmly… yet with a hint of resignation?

Why?

Hoping to find the answer to this question, the woman-girl turned her attention back to her mother.

The woman's eyes were steely. Concerned.

Suspicious.

Oh

Haruka suspected _something_. She had for a while, Naruko knew. How couldn't she? The pair of them acted rather strangely for toddlers at times. But being grown adults, it was so hard to try and imitate the proper behaviour of small toddlers whenever they did have control of their bodies. At least, Naruko thought so; they weren't the most mature, but she couldn't even remember what she acted like as a toddler.

She and Naruto hadn't tried to discuss _anything_ yet.

With good reason.

It was important they didn't make the woman suspect anything remotely close to what was really going on. As it was, she suspected _something_ too much… they might not be able to play it off as simply being genius little toddlers.

She could still hope though.

 _Please don't ask anything._ She thought.

When the woman moved she couldn't help but tense. It wasn't a threatening movement however, instead, it was momentarily confusing. The woman turned away from them in favor of crouching down next to the man she had just killed, her hands busily digging through the pouches on his person.

She was pilfering the bodies.

For a moment, Naruko thought she was going to be sick. But the rational side of her told her that this had a purpose. A good one.

Supplies.

They needed all they could get. Food rations, medical supplies, weapons. The pouches themselves.

So it was absolutely no surprise when the woman began removing the pouches off the fallen man, after she had pulled out a roll of bandaging and several small ointment tubs. Her eyes flickered over towards Naruto, who was still somehow standing, and so she had continued what she was doing unhurriedly.

She didn't move over to the first fallen man when she was done however, but gathered up the medical supplies she had pulled out, as well as the bamboo water canteen the man had been carrying. The later item she opened, took a sniff of it, and then a swig.

Testing for poison.

Naruko swallowed, concerned it actually was poisoned when Haruka continued to stand there for what felt like minutes.

Then Haruka walked over to the pair of toddlers, knelt between them, and held out the bandages to Naruko. "Hold these girl." She instructed, and out of habit, Naruko immediately held out her hands to take the rolled up cloth.

Their mother set the bandages in her waiting hands, and then turned her attention to Naruto. "Give me your hand, Boy," she instructed, a gentleness in her voice that Naruko had not heard since she had first woken to find herself outdoors, on the run.

 _Maybe she really does care_

* * *

The woman's touch was gentle, a sharp contrast to her actions of minutes ago.

Who would have thought she had the strength and conviction to kill like she just had?

Who would have thought she held enough love for him to tend to his wounded hand so carefully?

Naruto couldn't help but be surprised. Couldn't help but stare in shock as his mother cleaned the cut along his hand. He'd not failed to spot the suspicion, mixed with concern that had been in her gaze. Yet her first concern was to deal with the wound he'd given himself, rather than ask about how he'd managed to do what he did.

It had been entirely a gut reaction. He'd seen the Kunai flying towards him and he'd reached to catch it. Only his arm couldn't move as fast as his brain told it to, and he'd caught it by the blade, his palm sliced open.

When the woman had taken it from him, somehow she was able to do it without damaging his small hand further. Naruto had no idea how she managed it. One moment the blade was biting into his little hand, and the next it was in her hand, ready to pierce a man's fresh.

And now her hands were gently, deftly, wrapping up his hand and tying the bandaging in place.

Although that last bit hurt. Just a bit.

He grimaced despite himself, but the woman made no comment. He was starting to wonder why she wasn't calling out his weird behaviour. He was a toddler with a sliced open hand and all he did was grimace. He wasn't balling his eyes out over his injury like most toddlers would be. If they even remained conscious.

Of course, he was actually struggling a bit with that himself. His vision swam, and his body swayed, making him feel sick to his stomach. But he refused to let himself succumb to it. He would stay conscious!

He flinched then as he felt a hand under his chin, before he relaxed, realizing it was just Haruka's bony fingers. She tilted his head upwards, presumably to look into his eyes. He couldn't exactly discern the features of her face at the moment.

"You must stay awake, Boy," the woman said softly after a moment. Concussion? Well, he had hit his head on that tree pretty damn hard. He nodded, and then groaned as this sent a wave of nausea rushing through him. Now that the adrenaline had passed, his head, and hand, pounded with pain.

Tears gathered in his eyes.

Still he refused to cry.

"Girl, come here," the woman called a softly, and he made out the blurry movements of the other toddler. Then he felt his hand being placed in the girls before the woman before him stood. "Stay awake, Boy," she repeated softly, before she was moving away.

He couldn't really see what she was doing as she knelt next to the blurry form of the first fallen man. The one who had held a kunai to his throat. But he could hear the shuffling of fabric, much like he heard before she'd come over to tend to his hand.

His conclusion made the nausea worse.

The woman was pilfering the body for useful supplies. He couldn't blame her. They needed them. But that didn't make him feel any better about it. So instead he tried to push the knowledge the back of his mind and concentrate on staying awake.

It was actually really hard. His eyelids now felt like lead, dropping to a half mast.

And then the hot smell of blood met his nose. Or rather, he finally registered it. It had been hanging in the air for some time now, but his brain just hadn't had the capacity to process its presence.

He gagged.

Naruko squeezed his left hand lightly. He'd really like to get away from the smell.

"Come along now," the woman's voice reached his ear, and he felt Naruko tug lightly on his hand, guiding him towards the woman.

Then his hand had been pulled away from the girl's to be held instead by his mothers.

It was the first time her grasp actually felt like that of a mothers.

* * *

Her feelings were nothing but contradictions

She cared about the two. Cared about her _children_. A mother should. But she _hated_ that she cared, at the same time as accepting that it had been an inevitable development. She had been a caring, heart on her sleeve type of woman before. She'd thrived on caring, giving her affection freely to those around her.

And then she'd been beaten down again and again. Her gentle smiles had been shattered, her caring heart battered… but she still cared. No matter how much she tried to shelter that part of herself, she really couldn't help it.

At the same time she'd become bitter. Bitter and angry and hateful. She hated that man. She hated what he'd done to her. She hated those who worked for him. She even hated the other victims who had wailed and wallowed in self-pity before simply losing the will to care about anything. But most of all, she hated herself for breaking in the first place.

She lamented over what had been done to her. Over everything she had lost. Never being able to see her first born grow up… the child she had wanted. The child that had been her world before everything had gone terribly wrong. Before she'd betrayed everything because of a _rumor_.

A Rumor meant to lure her.

She had been so gullible.

But the guilt she felt over her foolish actions that had led to all of this was actually the easiest to shoulder. She'd followed her heart. Listened to her emotions. It had been absolutely dumb… but love made people do dumb things all the time. She'd accepted that she'd been a fool, but she also knew she would have probably done it anyway even if she'd stopped to think of how stupid it was. There was no point in beating herself up over a decision that would have been made regardless… unless she'd known how terribly wrong things would go. She accepted that guilt. Resolved herself to live with it, and move past it.

She could not so easily move past the guilt she felt about abandoning the other woman in the fire that _she_ had started. A guilt that was more from the realization that she was simply _relieved_ she had gotten away, and didn't have to try and help any of them while on the run, on top of caring for her two burdens. A guilt over the realization of how jaded she had become. How _cold_ she could be towards other humans… women who had suffered just as much as she, if not more so.

Children who had done nothing wrong but be born out of the sinister happenings in that place.

She'd left all of them to a painful death.

Or worse.

And then there was how she felt about the twins. The girl and boy she refused to name. She hated them because all she could see was their father; that disgusting, manipulative, treasonous pig. But she loved them because they were hers… they were innocent, and it wasn't their fault. She could see in them what she once was… and she could also see in them what her first child had been before they had become lost to her. She both loved and hated them for _that_. It was painful, bitter sweet, to think of her first child.

But they were not children she had wanted. They were not her precious first born. She felt guilty for being there, giving them the attention that should belong to the child that came first. But she couldn't abandon them. She couldn't leave them out in the world, while they were being sought after by that swine, and were too small to fend for themselves, let alone protect each other.

She loved them because despite it all, she could see they were concerned for her. See that they cared. And that they knew she was so terribly conflicted.

She hated them because they, in those strange moments, seemed to see right through her.

She hated them for keeping her from going back to her child. But she knew it wasn't actually their fault, and hated herself for being bitter and immature enough to blame them for even a moment.

But mostly she hated how soothing it was to watch the two now sleeping children cuddle up to each other for warmth. They looked so peaceful, so innocent, and so very precious. Even with the boy's hand wrapped in white bandages that were stained slightly red along his palm.

They were just children. Just Toddlers. Not even two years old yet.

She wasn't going to make it to their second birthday.

* * *

They had been found again. Naruto could tell by the tenseness in his mother's shoulders. The way her eyes darted back and forth, and the firmer grip the woman took on her hand. He picked up his feet a little quicker so as not to trail behind.

His body listened most of the time. The best it could. He hadn't felt like just a spectator in her own body for weeks, since just after the last time they'd been ambushed. They weren't even two yet, and whatever seal the Otsutsuki had placed on them was useless now, if not totally broken.

At least, he didn't think they were two yet.

He wasn't totally sure, as he didn't know exactly when they had been born. But the leaves hadn't started to change colours yet, even though it was getting colder, and the ground they walked upon was often muddy from rain. Autumn was drawing in again.

The man-child was actually amazed they'd been faring so well while on the run for what must be nearly a year.

The better he and Naruko's bodies got at moving, the more they were in control rather than the toddlers that they appeared, the easier things had gotten. But that still didn't change the fact that they'd done this all without any reliable shelter or source of food.

It was never going to last.

Naruto had thought the last time they'd been caught up to would be the end of it. And then the woman had fought, and he realized that she must have had shinobi training. Until then he'd never considered his mother to be anything but a civilian who'd been captured and abused by a group of missing nin. How painfully naive that was of him.

If it was true, they'd have died of starvation, the elements… or have been captured by now.

Not that he thought they could avoid one of those fates much longer.

Haruka was tired.

He could tell by the way her feet barely lifted enough not to drag. The way her lips were pursed in a thin line, and her eyes, though alert, where half lidded.

Naruto had to resist the urge to look around in search of their pursuers. He wouldn't see them. Even if it wasn't the middle of the night, with their surroundings further shadowed by the thick boughs above their heads. Letting them know that they were aware of their presence by looking around would just make them harder for the woman to locate.

Haruka had to figure out where they were before they made a move. If she didn't, then this would be the end of the world for them.

Naruto knew it for certain.

It was mostly luck that had kept them going since the ambush. And the thing about luck is that it always ran out.

But their mother clearly had more cards to play then he thought.

Her hands suddenly released theirs, and the woman turned on her heal, her hands blurring in hand seals.

In the next moment, the trees behind them were ablaze.

And as Haruka hefted the two up with her surprising strength, Naruto had one startling thought.

 _She's the one who started the fire the day we escaped._

* * *

She had to bite back a surprised, frightened squeal when she was suddenly scooped up after the woman between them had set the trees on fire. What a crazy, desperate thing to do!

But they were desperate, and she knew it.

And it worked. At least for now.

She just made out three shadows over her mother's shoulder as they were rushing away from the fire. Three shadows that seemed hesitant in what to do, standing amongst the flames.

It almost seemed as if they were debating putting them out or pursuing their prey. To her utter amazement they chose the latter option.

 _Why?_

Naruko couldn't believe her eyes as she watched them preform water jutsu to put out the flame. These people didn't strike her as forest conservationists after all. They worked for, or with, a man who raped their mother and wanted something with the pair of them. Caring about the environment just didn't mesh very well with that image.

Unless they were putting it out so it wouldn't attract the attention of other people? Could that be it? Was this just a tactic to slow them down… or was it meant to draw people towards them?

Did Haruka know people in the area?

That would be a first. Naruko had never seen or heard familiarity in the way people had addressed her mother on their journey. Although their journey might have stopped if they had come across someone the woman knew, so it was perhaps not so strange.

Not for the first time, Naruko wished she had some idea on where they were. Then perhaps she'd be able to figure out if they were heading towards a specific somewhere, or simply trying to keep ahead of their pursuit.

She didn't have much more time to consider the matter however, as her stomach dropped down into her knees, her vision blurring due to the speed of motion that they could not follow. And then they were in the trees, the woman jumping from branch to branch with ease, the two of them under her arms.

Turning her gaze to the side, Naruko saw that her brother was facing forward, rather than facing backward like she was. Curious.

Behind them she could still see the red glow of the flames, but they were already too far for her to make out anything beyond that. How much further were they going to go?

As far as Haruka could get them she answered herself immediately. It wouldn't make sense not to. Either they would get to whatever populated area Haruka was trying to get to, or simply until she couldn't go any further without using what strength she would need to fend off an ambush should they catch up to them.

Not that Haruka would be able to hold off three of them without harm coming to the two toddlers, or one of them being snatched. Two had been a problem last time. It was only because they'd underestimated what strength the wasting woman still had that she'd been able to fell the first one and turn the odds in her favour.

It was only a matter of time before they were caught or killed.

Haruka would keep trying to remain a step ahead of them anyway. After spending so much effort, and neglecting herself to this extent, she knew the woman had resolved herself to keep them away from the man until her dying breath at least.

Which could very well be tonight.

Naruko couldn't help the bitterness that rouse in her at that knowledge. It was all too _ironic_ in a sense. Kushina Uzumaki had died to ensure she survived the day she was born… for the sake of her becoming the Junchuriki of Kurama, so she could fulfill the destiny of the child of prophecy. Now, Haruka was throwing away her own life for the sake of her's and Naruto's.

 _Am I not allowed to know what it's like to grow up with a mother?_

* * *

She _burned._

Her lungs felt on fire as she tried to take in even breaths to keep herself going. Her muscles screamed in protest as she pumped chakra into them to keep them going, functioning. Her feet pounded dully as once more they impacted hard wood before pushing off to send her flying through the air again.

None of it was going to be enough.

She could no longer feel the heat of the fire she started on her back, but she knew that could just as easily be because they had already put out the flames. She'd only bought them some time. It wasn't enough to get away.

It would never be enough.

Her body was starting to give up on her. She couldn't keep pushing it in her mad dash to get to safety. She wouldn't make it. Wouldn't even make it close enough to be found before they had a chance to kill her and take the brats.

Running was not what she needed to be doing. It's what the two small bodies under her arms needed to be doing.

She needed to be creating one hell of a distraction so that they could get away.

Before she could consider how she was going to do that, her foot missed the branch, and she was falling forward towards the ground. With a curse on her lips, she pulled the children closer to her chest, and tried to twist her body in the air so she landed on her back.

She hit branches going down before she hit the ground, but her body would not listen to her. Hands full, she couldn't grab a branch to stop her fall. And more chakra just would not gather in her feet to break her descent.

She held the pair closer to her chest.

Then her head impacted a branch, her vision going white, and her arms slackening around her two children.

She felt their bodies fall away from her, moments before she collided with the ground.

* * *

The first time Naruto saw the woman cry was when he fully understood how much she really cared… and how torn she was that she did. She was frantically looking them over, her bony hands seeking out even the smallest of scraps. Her eyes were haunted in their deep hollows, her skin a sickly gray and clammy.

Then her hands stilled and her eyes darted about, searching for any sign of those that would soon be upon them. She remained stalk still for nearly a minute, before she grabbed the fallen, mud covered burlap sack from the ground and shoved it into his tiny hands. "You must go now, Boy." she whispered harshly, yanking at Naruko's little hand and pushing it into his own free one. "You both must go, and not look back." She instructed in a hoarse whisper, even as her eyes darted about again. "Do not look for me. You will never find me," her trembling voice insisted, as her shoulders straightened and she took a few steps backwards. Away from them.

She didn't question whether or not they would understand what she was saying. The typical toddler wouldn't, but she already _knew_ they would.

Naruto knew what she really meant by that. The woman expected to die. Beside him, Naruko gave out a little whimper, and he wasn't sure if it was _her_ or the child that she was. Whichever it was, it caused the woman to pause in her backwards strides away from them, eyes fixed solely on the girl.

A shuddering breath was expelled from the woman's lungs, before she closed the distance between them. She stood before them a moment, her face a mask of indecision, before it broke into the only smile he had ever seen there.

A self-deprecating, sorrowful smile.

"It's not your fault," the low, muttered whisper barely reached his ears. He knew she didn't think they would understand what she meant, what was unsaid, even if they did hear it… but he did _know_.

It wasn't their fault that their father had raped her and it resulted in them.

She stood now before them, wavering on the point of guilt, love and hate, all three emotions ready to burst forth. In the end he couldn't be sure if it was love or guilt that had won out, as the tears that began streaking down her face sent a mixed message next to the wry smile upon her lips.

"This is the last thing I will give to you, and I will only say it once," she told them urgently, the tears still streaking down her cheeks. Slowly she lowered herself to squat before them, and then placed one skeletal hand on Naruko's left cheek. "Makiko."

Naruto's eyes widened, and then he flinched as a clammy hand was placed against his cheek, his eyes fixing on the woman, and missing Naruko… Makiko's reaction. "Masato."

The cold hand left his cheek before his brain actually registered what had been said to him. His eyes widened further into great blue saucers, and his little mouth agape as the meaning sunk in.

She had just given him a _name_.

He wanted to thank her, or hug her… or maybe protest and say his name was Naruto. But he never got around to doing either.

Her hands shifted to their shoulders, and she leaned in until her mouth was next to their small ears. Then she whispered one more word, and was gone. Naruto would have questioned how she could possibly have the strength to shunshin away; If it wasn't for the bombshell of a final word she'd spoken.

A last name.

 _Their last name?_

* * *

A name.

Her mother had just given her a name.

 _Makiko._

It was the only thing she had ever wanted to ask the woman for. A name. Something that connected them, showed that the woman really did care. But it wasn't just a first name that she'd given.

A last name. Something that connected them on a deeper level. Something that connected them to those who shared that last name. And she knew where to look to grasp that hope that she had _Family_.

She stared wide eyed, shocked, at the place where the woman had been. Haruka. Her second Mother. Loved no less than her first.

But the name she had wanted was also a farewell.

Haruka was gone. Intent on throwing her life away so that they had a chance.

An abysmally slim chance.

But she absolutely couldn't squander it.

Swallowing back the tears that threatened to fall, the newly named Makiko squeezed her brother's hand and started to back away from the spot the woman had disappeared from. Away from the direction she assumed the danger was in.

Naruto, now Masato, squeezed her hand back. She turned her head to look into his eyes, which were wide in shock, but also showed that he understood. Not a word needed to be shared between them.

The pair took a few more steps backward, before the turned, and started off into the trees. They moved at a regular toddle at first, before picking up their pace a bit. They did not run. They were trying to conserve their energy for now. There was no telling how long they were going to have to keep going tonight.

They should have started at a run.

It was only a few minutes later that they heard the sound of wood splintering, before something horrifying flew over their heads. A warm drop fell upon her cheek, catching her off guard.

And then she saw what the source was.

Her eyes widened in horror as it arced through the air before hitting the ground and rolling to a stop several feet in front of them.

Little drops of red littered the ground between them and the thing. The mass. The same red that was on her cheek.

Blood.

Bile rouse in her throat as her mind registered what she was staring at.

A pale, blood stained, bony hand.

* * *

 **Word Count:** _5877_

* * *

 _ **To the Reviewers:**_

 _Guest (anonymous):_ Thank you for your feedback, but perhaps next time you would like to share what you found confusing so I could try and improve it / clarify? As for the slow bit; well the story has just started, it's only natural that things are not moving quickly yet. The pace of story progression will pick up in later chapters.

 _KaixDecayx:_ It makes me happy to hear that the last chapter made you feel so much. That was the hope when I wrote it, and it's a great compliment to hear that I succeeded in that for you =) thank you very much~

 **Thanks for the reviews~**


	5. Ch III: The Third Visit

**A/N:** Hello readers~

So here is the third chapter as promised. I'll try and keep posting this on a weekly basis moving forward as well, Probably on Tuesday. ID chapters will also have a specific day they are posted (though updates will only be as frequent as once a month), which, after the next update, will probably be on Thursdays.

Hope you all enjoy this next chapter~

* * *

 _Chapter III_ _:_ **The Third Visit**

* * *

The first time he _ever_ ran away, it was with the vehement promise that he would one day find the ones who were responsible for the immense suffering his second Mother had to face. And end them. By any means necessary.

And then he had the startling revelation that this feeling must have been similar to the one that had driven Sasuke down a dark path. He _finally_ understood what sort of pain Sasuke had gone through when he'd lost his parents so violently. At least… more so than he ever had in life, despite having preached several times that he _did._ However this revelation was soon pushed to the side by the utter disgust he felt for himself, for allowing the dark shadow of vengeance to burst into his thoughts like that. He might not have been an avenger in his world, but he had seen more than enough of what such a path would lead to know that would be the _opposite_ of saving this world.

Still, he _would_ find them. Maybe he would end them to. But it had to be for the _right_ reasons. Not Vengeance. Not for his own sense of justice even. But this was not something to concern himself with now.

As he held Naruko, no, Makiko's hand firmly in one of his, Naruto, or rather Masato, banished further thoughts of this from his mind. Being distracted right now would kill one or both of them. And Makiko still seemed to be in a daze over what had just happened. They had to move quickly. And as quietly as it was possible to do so when your body was a child's but your mind was an adults.

 _Damn_ there was no way they were going to be able to avoid detection like this. So he had to think of something.

Do _something._

They were just _toddlers_. They hadn't had a chance to really do anything in this world… he couldn't let them die now.

Or be captured.

He had no idea what these people wanted them for, but it certainly couldn't be good. No group that condoned raping women and then wanting the children that resulted from it for some obscure reason could be _good_. Period.

He _would_ do something.

Something they would never expect.

Lungs burning from the effort of running with a body that simply wasn't used to the urgent movements for any length of time, Naruto steered them around various forest floor hazards. With his sister being in a daze she was slowing them down more than enough… he couldn't afford to have her tripping up on roots.

As he ran he tried something _crazy._

Molding Chakra.

They would _never_ expect that.

He'd been experimenting with it a bit in the past week or so (he wasn't quite sure how long it had been as he'd only been fully synced with this body for the last few days). It was actually _just as hard_ as it had been in his first year as a genin. Harder if you took into account that this body simply wasn't accustomed to chakra use _at all_ yet.

But he had to make this work.

The sound of rushing water met his ears.

His foot impacted with the ground… and then stuck.

With a curse on his tiny lips Naruto released the hand of the girl in hopes that he wouldn't take her with him as he tumbled gracelessly to the leaf covered ground. Yuck. Leaves did not make a good meal.

Well at least he knew he could mold chakra in his feet. Although the foot in question burned.

Groaning, Naruto got back up, and grabbed Naruko's hand without looking at her. Instead he was looking back the way they came. Seeking out signs of movement. Straining his ears for anything that didn't fit in with the natural sounds of a forest at night.

He heard insects. Rustling leaves. The occasional nocturnal bird call, and the scurrying of small mammals. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The sense of urgency, however, did not fade. He knew why they might not be following them _right now_. But he also knew that they would. And somehow they had to get far enough away to hide.

Without a trail.

He set off at a run again. Now was not the time to be standing around here worrying about what to do! He just had to do it!

Please let him find something… _somewhere_ that would work.

There was a sliver of dark blue and white pinpricks ahead of them. A clearing? The source of the sound of water?

He tightened his grip on Naruko's hand.

She tightened hers back.

Surprised for a moment, he miss-stepped again, and was only saved from a tumble by the girls grip on him, pulling him back upright. He risked a glance back at her, chest heaving from exertion as he pressed on at a slower pace. He couldn't keep this up much longer.

Her eyes were full of quiet determination, and absolute trust in him.

He came to a stop, both out of further surprise, and a need to catch his breath. No pressure right?

She flashed him a brief smile, and her lips moved though she did not speak aloud. Sound was their enemy. It was only one word, but it was all he needed.

 _Unpredictable._

As in, they had both been called the number one unpredictable shinobi for a reason. As in their ideas had always been crazy and high risk, but they dared to do it anyway, _and pulled them off_. As in, despite being in a new world, in bodies that just couldn't do everything they wanted, they were still themselves. As in they had promised to come here and save this world. And going back on their word was against their Nindo.

With a slight nod, the boy turned back ahead and broke into a run once more. Naruko did not need to be tugged along this time. As best as they could they shot through the trees, heading for that break in the trunks that showed a tantalizing view of the night sky.

The sound of water was now nearly thunderous.

A waterfall.

They burst through the underbrush and out of the trees, barely seeing the water's edge in time to come skidding to a stop. Spray splashed against their faces and dampened their hair from the water colliding against itself. They stood near the foot of the waterfall, towered over by a daunting, sheer rock face.

Naruto inspected said rock face more intensely.

It wasn't shaped right.

Eyes widened in realization. Recognition.

Towering over them was the form of one Uchiha Madara.

The Valley of the end.

His sister's grip tightened on his now. She knew it too. And what that meant. They were, amazingly, at the border of Fire country. More importantly, he knew how to get to Konoha from here.

More importantly still, this was just what they needed.

They had several options to get away if they used the terrain here. Not only did they both know it (although it wasn't going to be the same as their most recent memories of it by any means), but there was more than one option that would be inconceivable to their pursuers.

For them however, there was only one real choice.

The best chance, the one that they would never expect in a million years, could get them both killed in a heartbeat.

And Naruko knew it too.

He could feel her apprehension through their joined hands. But as he made his way towards Madara's stone feet, she followed him with no protest.

They _had_ to do it.

 _Go up._

Concentrating hard on his feet, the boy stopped before the rock that was going to serve as their escape way. Hopefully. Slowly he lifted his own foot and touched it to the cold stone, trying to put his weight on it.

It slid.

He concentrated harder and tried again. It stuck

Only for a second.

Gritting his teeth, the boy-man tried one more time.

* * *

Leaves swayed, some falling loose and fluttering to the ground. Aged wood groaned softly at the sudden weight that came to rest upon four branches among the maze of wooden limbs. A pair of sandaled feet rested atop each branch, belonging to four cloaked figures.

Some distance away a red glow lit up the night sky.

The lead figure signaled to the other three with one hand

Leaves swayed, shook loose, and fluttered to the forest floor.

The figures were gone.

* * *

Her brow was furrowed and covered in sweat, teeth gritting together in concentration as she raised one foot before pushing it up against the rock. It slid a fraction of a centimeter and then properly stuck. The next foot followed, though this one did not slip.

 _Don't look down_ , she told herself. Not because she was afraid of heights, but because she didn't want to grow frustrated over how little distance she'd covered since the last time she looked down. Instead, she kept her eyes focused above her. On the little hand that was now stretching out, a foot above her, offering her assistance.

There was a time when she had been impressed with how he seemed just a little bit quicker at accomplishing things than her. There were also times when it had left her feeling inadequate and a little depressed. Now was neither of those times.

She was angry.

Scowling up at the boy who was now kneeling on the wrist of the stone figure they were climbing, she tightly clenched her jaw, and continued the tedious task of controlling her chakra to take one step after another up the stone.

Her feet burned.

Recognizing that despite her frustration, she really did need the boy's help to get herself up into that blasted wrist so she could rest, she stretched out her right hand. Their fingers touched. She forced chakra into her left hand, and placed it against the rock, above her head, before raising her right foot as high as she could reach and sticking it there. With a little grunt after unsticking her left foot, she hoisted herself up as far as she could.

Naruto's hand closed tightly around her own. She squeezed it tightly, half out of necessity in order to pull herself up that much sooner, and half simply out of a childish need to cause him discomfort. He grimaced, but pulled her up into rock appendage anyway.

A relieved exhale left her lips, as she knelt on her hands and knees, feet still hanging over the edge of the rock. With a second exhale she lowered herself to lay on her stomach, still trying to catch her breath. Eyes blurrily turned to her side to look at her brother.

All she saw was his heels.

"Naruto!" she groaned, pushing herself back up onto her knees and seeking him out.

He paused where he was, standing in front of the sleeve with his hands placed against the rock. He looked over his shoulder at her, a frown upon his lips. "Masato." Was all said, before he awkwardly began pulling himself up onto the sleeve, presumably so he could walk up Madara's arm.

All her aggravation with the boy left her with that single word. Instead, tears gathered in the corner of her eyes as her thoughts were directed to the names they'd just received. The final thing their mother in this world had given them before…

A choked sob slipped past her lips, a few tears escaping her eyes and streaking down her little cheeks. Masato gave a great heave and pulled himself up onto the sleeve before looking back at her. Once more he stretched out a hand towards her. "Makiko."

More tears slid down her cheeks, but she resolutely pushed herself onto her feet to make her way over to his outstretched hand. Naruto had decided that he was Masato now. That he was Haruka's son, and he would cherish the name she had given him before sacrificing herself. That he would strive to live, and be worthy of her love that had led her to sacrifice everything for them. Who was Naruko to do any different?

Naruto and Naruko Uzumaki had had their lives in their own worlds. They'd done everything they could for their loved ones, and lived by their nindo. It was imparted upon their souls… but it wasn't _who_ they were _now_. Who this world required them to be. She wouldn't forget her old life, ever, and she would use what she'd learned in it to help her in this new world. But she was now a different person.

Naruko, as of this moment, was no more. She was Makiko from now on.

Ignoring the painful chakra burns in hand and foot, the girl reached out for her brother's hand once more, placing her right foot against the rock and using both as leverage to haul herself upwards before using her left to anchor herself so she could take another step up the stone. Then she was atop the sleeve next to the boy, her breathing ragged from the exertion, but there.

Masato's hand remained around her own this time, the small boy's chest heaving from his own exertion. Together the two sat for a moment, eyes meeting and searching the other. She saw understanding in his. He knew what she had been thinking. No words needed to be shared.

Naruto was no more. Now he was Masato.

It was somehow fitting that they came to this new beginning here of all places. The place where they'd gone from two major endings to two new beginnings in their old lives. The place where they were truly acknowledge by Sasuke, and then the place where they finally, really got through to him.

This place were a major chapter in their lives had come full circle.

Masato gave her hand a slight squeeze, and she offered him a small smile in return. Then she looked cautiously over the edge of the sleeve to scan the ground below them for any signs of those who had been pursuing the little family.

Tree tops below them rustled in the wind. Insects chirped.

There was no sign of human life aside from themselves.

Masato tugged lightly on her hand, and she gave a slight nod before rising to her feet next to him. Even though it seemed that no one was around didn't mean that they could afford to stop here for long. They were completely exposed here. If those who were trying to capture them came out of the trees at this very moment, it wouldn't be hard to spot them, despite the dark. They'd be in total disbelief that the two had climbed half way up the carved figure of the famous Uchiha, but that was unlikely to stop them from jumping up there themselves to grab the toddlers.

There was nothing they could do to outrun them. They had to hide in a place they would never think to look for them.

And hope none of them was a sensor.

The odds were overwhelmingly against them. But it didn't matter that they now had new names, and had resolved themselves to live as new people in this world. It was still against every fibre of their being to give up. Makiko would not give up.

Her body protested each step she took as she struggled to walk up the incline of the statue's arm, half a step behind her brother. The incline was a little steep for toddlers to be trying to walk, but still they took each step with minimal amounts of chakra… it wouldn't be long before the symptoms of chakra exhaustion set in.

They still had to climb up to Madara's shoulder at least. If they could make it there they could hide in the shadows of his hair, or under his armor if there was enough room. She had no idea of there was, though that would be the ideal place. She'd had absolutely no reason inspect the stone figures that closely the other times she'd been here. From there it wasn't that far to the top of the cliff considering how far they had already climbed… but she doubted they would have enough chakra to go much further, and stay conscious and alert to find another hiding spot once they reached the top. The shoulder was their best bet.

Just so long as they didn't fall.

Makiko grimaced, before setting her lips in a firm, determined line. Don't think about that right now, she told herself. Falling was not an option. They had to live.

So she placed one foot in front of the other in repetition, molding chakra into the burning soles of her feet as the incline became too steep. A little further and she had to release Naruto's hand so she could use her hands to help her in what was once again a climb.

One foot, one hand, slowly _inching_ upwards.

* * *

 _Stay awake_

The woman told herself vehemently, one hand tightly grasping the stump where her other should have been, where all that was left was the horrendous throbbing and terrible stench of burnt flesh.

Jabbing the stub of a limb into her own Katon jutsu had been the only way to staunch the profuse bleeding and keep fighting. To keep the three away from her fleeing children. And fight she did. Like a woman possessed.

Before her was the burnt corpse of the man who had taken her hand. To either side the cloaked men flanked her, weapons drawn, blood splattering their arms. One was favouring his left leg. He was her next target. There was no way she was going to survive her injuries and be able to go find her two children again.

But she could take these two down with her, and die knowing her final endeavor to keep them out of _his_ hands just a little bit longer was a success.

Another Katon Jutsu wouldn't be enough to catch either of them now. She'd used it against them three times already. After all, chakra exhaustion was not a concern, seeing as she had no intention of living. And since that was the case, avoiding further injury was pointless. All she had to do was remain conscious long enough to kill the other two.

She hadn't bothered to move when they had come at her again. Instead she allowed a kunai to burry itself in the shoulder of her injured arm, and the tanto of other adversary to slip between two of her ribs, likely piercing her kidney. Instead she ignored the new pain and sent a kick into man's injured leg.

Where the strength to move at such speed afterwards had come from, she would never know. But she'd torn the blade from her side, and launched herself at the man, driving the blade that had previously impaled her upwards between his first two ribs and into his heart.

She took two Kunai to the back as the blade was driven home.

Vision swimming she whirled back towards her remaining foe, tearing the kunai out of her arm and throwing it at him.

He must not have expected it. Must have thought those last two Kunai would have paralyzed her in pain. Because her thrown projectile pierced through his hand that had been extended after throwing another kunai at him.

She took the new kunai to the leg.

It was just as quickly in her hand before being tossed back towards the man who was foolishly paying more attention the blade in his throwing hand then to her. Briefly she had the thought that these men were terribly trained. A genin was less foolish, harder to catch of guard than they.

Miraculously her aim was true. The man fell. The battle was over.

 _Stay awake,_ she told herself again. But this time, she did not know why. It would be so _easy_ to just let herself fall. Instead she turned awkwardly, and limped away through the forest.

Towards the sound of rushing water.

* * *

With War looming on the horizon it was imperative that their borders remained secure. Especially when there were potential enemies in almost all directions. But with such a vast border, it was impractical to send their most talented and experienced on border patrol. It was also inadvisable to send the young and inexperienced without proper guidance. While the frontlines were the most dangerous, border patrols could quickly escalate to A, or even S rank missions should there actually be an enemy encountered.

So they settled on sending squads like his Genin teams with an experienced Jonin captain, and talented, promising genin pupils. Unfortunately, there weren't many shinobi sensei-pupil squads that fit into this category. Which meant that His squad had already been on this northern stretch of border for three weeks.

A relief squad was _finally_ en route. But that didn't mean he could allow his little subordinates to slack off because they only had a day or two left of this. They had a job to do, and it was _important._

And right now they had to check out what was going on just north of the border. The glow they had spotted earlier was unmistakably that of a fire. And a fire near the border could mean several things… most of them linked to an enemy trying to cross the border. The one that worried him most however was that it was a distraction.

That didn't mean they could ignore it.

So he had made the call to change their regular route to go investigate, although not before he'd made sure the nearest other patrolling squad was made aware of what was going on.

The glow was diminishing however. The fire was being put out.

Which didn't add up at all with any of the theories he had. He slowed for a moment, until he noticed that one of his little genin had picked up pace. The boy must think that this meant the fire was more akin to a signal.

Or a call for help.

And if there was one thing he knew about this boy it was that he _never_ ignored a call for help.

He wasn't about to let that get the child killed though. So he picked up his own pace, keeping himself ahead of the shinobi youth. Having come this far however, he already realized that the fire was on the other side of the border, although only by about a kilometer.

But their orders expressly forbid them from crossing the border. Even if this particular stretch of border wasn't with a nation that had a shinobi village of its own. Most of the skirmishes that had broken out already were taking place in smaller countries, like Ame to the south. There wasn't any fighting going on in Rice country right now, which was the border they were patrolling… but that could change at the drop of a hat.

They were getting closer to the river… closer to the actual boundary between Fire country and Rice, the trees parting way to a river with a rocky shore. And then he spotted the stumbling figure on the opposite shore. Pale skinned, smeared in ash and splattered with blood.

Notably missing a hand.

They looked like an unfortunate victim of war. A civilian who had got caught in something terrible, or a shinobi who had ran away because they didn't want to die fighting this war.

Shinobi he amended moments later, as they stumbled out _onto_ the surface of the water.

His blonde student jumped out of the branches and onto the shore, attention clearly fixed upon the stumbling individual. He followed suit, keeping pace with his pupil, ready to place a halting hand on the boy's shoulder. But against his expectations, the young genin did not rush out towards the stumbling figure, instead continueing along the shore. The shredded individual moved up river, and towards this shore. They seemed totally unaware of their surroundings however.

And then the stone figures of the two founding father's of Konoha came into view.

The figure collapsed to the ground on this shore, and his little subordinate rushed towards them.

Before freezing completely a few feet away.

Stopping next to the much shorter individual, he took a good look at the fallen shinobi to try and figure out why he had stopped. He found his gaze was met by a pair of dull blue eyes, before said eyes moved to the one standing beside him. They widened in mystified recognition.

"Mi-mina-to?"

His eyes widened in incredulity. This person (a woman he realized by her roughened, likely once soprano voice) knew Namikaze Minato? Slightly he tilted his head so he could examine the blonde male's reaction out of the corner of his eye

Minato looked nothing short of gobsmacked. His incredulous expression soon shifted to a confused frown… and then to something he had never thought he'd see on the Namikaze boy.

Anger.

But as quickly as he had noticed it it was gone, and the boy's expression took on a neutral mask. The jounin barely registered the sound of his other two genin jumping to the ground behind him, as he was too intent on trying to read Minato's now astoundingly controlled expression. Somehow that was more terrifying than the boy actually showing anger had been. Clearly Minato knew this woman, and he wasn't exactly pleased about it… though he couldn't tell if it was because of the terrible condition she was in, or because of who she was.

He turned his gaze back on the woman, who was supporting her upper body with her only hand, her arm trembling from even the slight weight of her bony frame. Her face was sallow, and her hair too full of grime for him to be sure if the color really was gray, or some other shade.

"Hahaue."

The one word, spoken in an uncharacteristicly cold voice told him all he needed to know.

This was Haruka Namikaze. Minato's mother.

A missing nin who had sold out her squad during a mission three years ago, during a mission that was meant to try and prevent the impending war. This knowledge caused the jounin to tense. After all, even this woman looked as if she would die any minute, she was still an A ranked criminal in their bingo book, and he had in tow a trio of young genin.

She could have allies around as well. Seeing as she had defected, or so he had heard. No, he ammened immediately She had no allies around. Not when she looked like she'd been wasting away for at least a year.

"You… have every right to h-hate me," she choked out, a self loathing smile that twisted into a grimace on her bloody lips. "I deserve i-it. B-but they don't, M-minato.." the woman continued on, the act of speaking clearly a massive undertaking for her now. And no wonder, it looked like she'd been stabbed in the side, judging by how coated in blood she was from the waist down. Likely her kidney and liver had been run through. The pain alone would interfere with her breathing, and thus her speech. "They're just -to-" and she coughed violently, spewing bits of blood and phlegm. He couldn't help but grimace at the sight. "Just toddlers."

Wait… Toddlers? What was she talking about? Was she even slightly coherent?

Minato seemed to be wondering the same thing, as the look on his face shifted to one of confusion now, breaking the emotionless mask he had been wearing, and allowing his companion to see that he didn't simply hate the woman, but was concerned and devastated by her condition as well.

"What are you talking about?" the blonde boy asked, his voice loosing the hard edge.

The smile turned grimace came back, this time looking, impossibly, more sorrowful. "Yo-your brother and si-sister,"

Minato's jaw wasn't the only one that slackened.

* * *

His entire little body ached, burned or just plain _hurt_. His feet throbbed and smarted from chakra burns and scraps from the slipping on the rock. His hands were worse, his nails also bloody and splitting from griping and scraping on stone to try and lever himself up that much sooner. What meagre muscles his two year old body had were screaming in protest from the strain they'd been put through.

But he'd made it.

Panting heavily, he still leaned over to stretch his right hand out towards his sister. He anchored himself in place by pushing more chakra into his left hand, despite how much it absolutely _burned_. His little hand closed around Makiko's when she reached upward, and he pulled as hard as he could to help her up the last foot onto the stone shoulder.

 _They_ had made it.

The boy allowed himself to fall onto his back, eyes staring blurrily up at the dark sky. Still night time. That in itself was actually amazing. It felt like they'd been at the climb for _hours._ It ought to be morning by now, at least. Yet there wasn't even a hint of warm hues on the horizon that would signify the approach of dawn.

Not that he was complaining. Since it was still dark out, there was less chance that they could be seen sprawled on their backs on the shoulder of one of Konoha's stone founding fathers. Their chests heaved as their lungs greedily took in much needed oxygen.

 _Stay awake_ he told himself weakly. Even though they were finally up upon Madara's cold shoulder, that didn't mean he could succumb to the exhaustion and sleep. He had to make sure they were out of sight. Just as soon as he caught his breath and could move his leaden limbs.

Beside him Makiko shifted slightly, rolling onto her side. He didn't even have the strength to turn his head to see what it was she was doing or why. He just stared upwards, his eyes half lidded, as he fought to keep himself conscious.

"Masa-nii," the girl breathed out, and he felt her little hand on his bare forearm, slick with sweat and specks of blood.

"Wha-?" was all he could manage to force out, his head falling to the side to try and look at her, but his vision to blurry now to really make her out.

"Masato!" she said more urgently, now shaking his arm with what little strength she could muster. "Look down!" The growing urgency in her voice caused his eyes to snap open wide, new found energy entering his limbs. The boy rolled onto his stomach, and pushed himself up on his elbows, blinking his eyes several time to try and clear his vision.

As the world came back into focus he looked directly down, at the feet of the figure they were perched on, but Makiko's hand was back on his arm moments later, shaking insistently.

"No. Dere!"

At any other time he might have inwardly laughed at her mouths inability to form words she had technically learned decades ago. Now however he just glanced over at her to see where her small hand was pointing.

Across the water on the opposite shore.

Squinting he turned his eyes in that direction and tried to make out whatever it was she had seen. It took him a few precious moments to realize what he was looking at.

Two blotches that looked suspiciously like people, and a third slightly closer, right on the water's edge, that might be someone who had fallen.

"Sit" _shit_.

Now wide awake, the boy grabbed Makiko's hand, and looked around the stone they were perched on for a place to hide. "Mooff," he commanded to the girl. _Move._

And they both did so, shuffling towards the Sode (spaulder) and squeezing back as far as they could until it would be a chore to shimmy back out from the snug fit. As they came to a stop however, Masato realized one big problem with their hiding place.

It was impossible to see what was going on down below.

They would have no idea when those below moved, or if they had noticed them. Should they come to investigate, it would be too late by the time He was able to see or hear them for them to be able to get out and away.

 _Please don't find us._

* * *

Minato Namikaze was generally known as a kind hearted, and very accepting boy. He tended to be the person who gave others the benefit of the doubt, and easily accepted tales that others would find too far-fetched to believe before presented with concrete evidence.

But this was something else.

The dying woman before him had been missing for three years. Had abandoned the village… abandoned _him_ for another village after his father's death. After three years of nothing, suddenly here she was, looking as if she'd been starving for nearly that long, and having clearly come out of a battle. A desperate battle.

And telling him he had a brother and sister.

He knew they couldn't be his father's, as the man was declared KIA a year before his mother defected. And she had called them toddlers. Toddlers indicated that they were _very young_ children. It brought a sickening thought to mind. Had his mother defected to another village to seek solace with a shinobi there? Had the painful sorrow he remembered seeing in her eyes back then not been because she wasn't over his father's death, but because she could not be with her new lover?

He'd felt abandoned, and hurt by his mother's defection. Even angry. But he hadn't held any hate for her. Not until now, as this new possibility came to mind. But just as quickly as the anger came it left. The scenario didn't make any sense after all. His mother had hardly left the village that year following his father's death. When could she have met a former shinobi and fallen in love?

Unless it had been going on since before his father had been killed in action. An idea he immediately dismissed. In his memories, the love his parents showed for each other was genuine. He wanted to continue to believe in that. Even if it wasn't the truth.

Doing his best to reign in his emotions, Minato pressed his lips into a firm line, regarding the woman before him more closely.

Her condition was dreadful. She was all skin, bones, soot and grime. Looking beyond the blood and grime, it was easy to see she wouldn't survive much longer even if it wasn't for her injuries. One did not waste away to this degree from not eating properly for a month or two. No, her current state had to be due to a year or more of starvation, and likely a lack of proper sleep. The grime was days old, and her smell was rancid. Like she hadn't bathed in a week. This combination of things led him to believe the woman had been out of doors this entire time.

With the toddlers she mentioned?

But if she couldn't feed herself as she traveled, how could she have fed and cared for two toddlers?

By starving herself.

That was the best explanation. She was in this state out of self-neglect in order to take care of these two toddlers. But that didn't answer all of the questions he had for her… not even close. Where had she been all this time? Why had she left? Who did she have these toddlers with? And why had she been in a situation where she had to neglect herself so badly in order to care for two young children who she shouldn't have been traveling around with in the first place?

And where were these two toddlers now?

He took in a sharp intake of breath, dark blue eyes immediately flicking about his surroundings seeking any sign of two toddlers. Had she hidden them somewhere before whatever battle she had been in had broken out? Whether that was the case or not, the boy saw no sign of them. All there was to see that his sensei and two teammates were all looking at him, and the woman, in confusion or shock… or both. So he turned his attention back to the woman, whose eyes were now half lidded. She wouldn't be able to maintain consciousness much longer.

There was so much he wanted to ask, but he didn't have the time. She wouldn't last to answer all of his questions. It didn't matter how much he wanted these answers, he was going to have to go without. Because getting them would mean abandoning the only lead on the two small children who were somewhere out here, on their own, and possibly at risk of being found by hostiles.

"Where are they?"

His voice sounded dry, and emotionless even to himself. But it was just that he was feeling too much. He had to push it away. Had to be calm and calculating and detached in order to cope with an otherwise all too personal situation.

"Don't know," was the woman's response. In contrast to his own voice however, hers was filled with emotion. Bitter, angry, concerned, _fearful._ " _They_ caught up to us. I knew I couldn't take all of them out while protecting the brats. Told them to run. They ran this way."

Minato let out a slow, calculated breath before closing the distance between him and the woman. He lowered himself into a squat in front of her, so there eyes were on the same level. "How old?" The boy asked, "What are their names?"

The woman regarded him with weary eyes for a moment before answering in little more than a whisper. Her throat could no longer handle anything harsher. "Two in a month. Masato and Makiko…. It's been two hours."

Two hours.

If the pair were under two years old, they really couldn't have gotten far in two hours. But any number of things could have happened to them. They could have tumbled down a drop, fallen in the river, or even been attacked by the more violent wildlife.

"Inoru-san," He called back to his other blonde heaired teamate, who was behind him and to the right. However his eyes remained fixed on the woman in front of him. She was still a criminal. He wasn't about to open his back to her. "See if you can sense anyone else in the area."

This caused a heavy sigh to fall past the lips of his sensei, and the boy knew why. But he didn't bother to look at the white haired jounin. He could hear the man's feet on the stone littered shore, as the older shinobi moved towards him. "Minato… we can't be crossing the border," the white haired shinobi reminded him. Minato didn't even spare him a glance over his shoulder at that statement.

"We can't abandon a pair of toddlers without even trying to figure out where they are, sensei" he replied back coldly.

The man was silent for several moments before speaking again, though not to Minato. "Go ahead, Inoru." And the other boy gave a soft "Yes Sensei." Then Minato felt a hand on his shoulder. "Even if he finds them, Your staying here with your teammates, Minato. If it's close, I'll leave a Toad with you and go check it out myself." The man was telling him. Minato gritted his teeth and nodded. Silence fell over them then.

Until the woman erupted into a rash of violent coughing. Blood speckled her lips and the hand she brought up to cover her mouth. Moments later she collapsed completely, her breathing ragged. Dull eyes sought him back out, and fixed him with a look he could only describe as a desperate plea. "Mina- to," she struggled to get his name out. "Their fa-," her words were punctured by more coughing, "Father… must not f-find th-." A shuddering breath, and then her frame went limp, what little light that had remained in the woman's eyes now fading away as she succumbed to the embrace of death.

Their father must not find… them?

He took in another steadying breath, closing his eyes so he no longer had to look at what was now the corpse of his mother. He just listened as the heavier footfalls of his sensei moved over the rocks, before that went silent again as well. Then there was a light popping sort of sound, and he opened his eyes to see the white haired jounin on one knee, rolling up a scroll that he had clearly just sealed his mother's body into.

He let out a shuddering breath.

His mother, Haruka Namikaze, was dead.

And his mother's last words to him was a warning. That the father of the two must not find them. Why? It must have something to do with why she was in the state she was, right? Why she thought it was a good idea to be traveling, with pursuers, when she had two toddlers in tow. Two toddlers who were little more than _babies._

A hand came down on his shoulder. This one considerably smaller.

Every muscle in his body tensed, ready to spring into action and attack an unsuspecting foe. But his mind was just a bit faster, telling him that this hand belonged to his teammate. His eyes left the scroll in his sensei's hand that they had been glued to this whole time, turning to his side as the other boy now stood beside him.

And was pointing right at the stone likeness of Uchiha Madara.

This time his body moved faster than his mind. Ignoring whatever protest Inoru, or his Sensei might have, the Namikaze leapt from his place on the shore towards the towering figure.

* * *

 **Word Count:** _7243_

* * *

 ** _To the Reviewers:_**

 _Maskedgirl16(guest):_ thank you for your kind words~ So here's that next chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it~~

 _Cadelorbe12:_ Thank you for your reviews. I hope you continue to enjoy the story~~

 **Thanks for the reviews~**


	6. Ch IV: Brother

A/N: Hello readers~

I'm so sorry for the long wait on this chapter, but I'm back! If you don't follow _**ID**_ , then I'll say this about my long absence: Work is _brutal_. What was supposed to be 2 weeks on, 2 off, wasn't, and sometimes I barely got 4 days off. But that's calmed down, and I should be done with that job completely after the new year. So, I'm back to stay this time, and baring family events or something equally important, I will be updating this story every Tuesday. There will also be at least 8 Thursday updates in the next 4 months, including this Thursday~

So I hope you all enjoy the this long awaited chapter~

* * *

Chapter IV: Brother

* * *

So that was the end of Namikaze Haruka. Not at all a pleasant end. And there were far too many questions left unanswered. Mysteries that her corpse could perhaps help to solve. It was with this thought in mind that the Jounin pulled a scroll out from his vest, followed by ink and brush, before he lowered himself down to one knee in front of the body. Minato had closed his eyes, his round face pale, reminding the man that he was indeed just a boy of ten. Poor kid shouldn't have had to see his mother like this… shouldn't have had the first loved one he watched die so early in his shinobi career. But to his credit, he hadn't broken down in tears like many other kids would have. His two teammates were just as ashen faced, and he had noted the glint of tears in the corner of Inoru's eyes.

Minato was a child, but he was also already a fine Shinobi.

Still, he figured it was best to remove the body from the boys sight quickly. Ink went onto the brush, and from there onto the scroll, before more was applied to the body, followed by a few quick hand-signs. Then the body was gone, now sealed within the scroll. The sunshine blonde's eyes snapped open at the sound the sealing made, and fixed upon the scroll in his hands. As he straightened, the boys gaze naturally followed the item, causing a frown of concern to slide over the jounin's face. Poor kid.

And then Inoru's hand landed on Minato's shoulder, and the emotionally high-strung boy nearly attacked his teammate. He could see it in the way the genin tensed. However, he was able to stop himself, turning instead to see what Inoru wanted. The white haired shinobi took this opportunity to slide the scroll into his pouch.

And then Minato was on the move.

It took him a precious second to realize what had just happened. Inoru's hand was pointing towards the great stone figure of Uchiha Madara. The two toddlers were there?

"Shit," the man cursed softly, before biting down on his thumb and preforming the handseals to summon a toad. He didn't even properly greet the toad who appeared. "Gama, stay with Inoru and Kenta," was all he said to the toad before he leaped after his wayward student.

"Minato!" he admonished harshly as he caught up to the boy when he landed by the foot of the stone figure, his hand firmly taking hold of the boys to keep him routed in place.

Minato, not at all unexpectedly, swatted the man's large hand away. The glower he sent at him though was a bit unexpected. Thankfully though, the boy remained standing where he was. He fixed him with a stern, disapproving stare, but the boy would not back down. Finally, he let out a soft sigh. "Alright… they are your siblings," He muttered softly. "If that's who Inoru sensed. Stay behind me until I've verified who's really up there."

Minato continued to hold his gaze unblinkingly, before he finally nodded with a low "Fine."

Then the two of them pushed chakra into their legs, and began to jump their way up the statue.

* * *

She had to stay awake.

Masato had lost consciousness not long after they'd squeezed into their hiding place. Worriedly she glanced over at him, and then once more debated if she should shuffle out to see if the people she'd spotted down below were gone or not. But if they weren't she could end up getting them caught, when those people might not have found them otherwise. If she didn't check they could be stuck here, sandwiched in by cold stone, for the remainder of the night, when the coast was already clear. There was no way to know if it was safe to come out or not without crawling out to look.

A part of her knew it hadn't been long enough for it to be safe to peek yet. But she was growing impatient with not being able to see what was going on. She hated it. Absolutely. It made her feel more helpless than she already did by being trapped in such a young, awkward body.

And her hands and feet stung. Her head throbbed, and her knees and elbows burned. She hurt all over and she felt helpless and afraid. Afraid like the child she appeared to be. And she couldn't do anything about any of it, which made it that much worse.

Her breathing sounded thunderous to her own ears.

Like the child she now was, she found herself attempting to hold her breath. Until her thoughts caught up with the action and she realized that it was absolutely foolish. She couldn't hold her breath for hours as an adult. No one could. It was simply impossible and illogical to attempt the feat with a child's much smaller lung capacity.

Glancing over at Masato, she squinted to try and make out his face in the dark. She couldn't really see much aside from that his eyes were closed. Squirming so her arm was out from under here, she reached towards the boy.

His skin was hot and clammy.

Alarmed she jerked her hand back, biting her lip at what that likely meant. His chakra exhaustion had driven him into a feverish state. Lying on cold stone was only going to exasperate it.

Her autumnal blue eyes moved back to the sliver of starry sky she could see, and then returned to the ill boy as she tried to decide what to do. And then with much squirming and muffled grunts, she maneuvered herself off of her side and onto her stomach, so she could start pulling herself out. The stone chaffed against her knees and exposed forearms as she pulled herself along.

And then she was holding her breath once again, as two pairs of feet in dark coloured sandals came into view at the opening of their hiding place. She was staring at the back of someone's heels, barely two feet away from her little face. She didn't dare move a muscle even as the feet slowly moved away several feet before coming to a stop.

"Masato…?" a man's voice rang out.

Her eyes widened.

"Makiko?" This time the voice sounded like a child's… perhaps a boy?

Despite herself a small gasp pushed past her lips. She immediately covered her treacherous mouth with one of her hands, and attempted to shrink back downwards.

 _How do they know our names?_

They'd just gotten them! The only way this person could know them was if he'd overhead their mother giving them their names, or he'd gotten it from the woman after the fact. She couldn't see their pursuers having even thought about them having names… so someone the woman had told willingly?

The feet turned, moving back towards them. Obviously they had heard her. And then she was looking at one of the man's knees, and his hand, before the silhouette of his face came into view. It was nearly impossible to make out any detail in the dark, but no darkness could hide white hair. But it was something else entirely that really caught her attention.

The glint of metal on his forehead.

This man wore a Hitai-ate. Something that had been absent on those who had pursued them before. Not that that meant this person wasn't a threat. At all.

"It's okay," the man spoke softly, trying to sooth whom he thought to be a very small child. "I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help." The more he spoke, the more she thought the voice sounded familiar… and yet…

Someone trying to lure a pair of children into a false sense of security would say that. The gentle concern in his voice meant nothing. She shrank back further.

In response the man straightened, and took a few steps back, before lowering himself to sit upon the rock. "Alright, We'll wait right here until you're ready to come out," he said just as softly. A moment later she watched as the owner of the smaller set of seat sat beside him. They were too far away fro her to be able to tell if it was a boy or a girl.

Surely they would lose patience after a while and try and grab them, she thought. Then at least she'd know that they were the 'bad guys'. So she shuffled backwards until she could barely see either and was back beside her brother.

Ten minutes passed.

Neither had moved.

Fifteen minutes passed.

The larger figure moved slightly, but did not rise.

"-ato," she could hear the voice of the man, but he was speaking too softly for her to decipher all of what he was saying. That sounded like the tail end of a name perhaps? "We ca- … border patro- … mission." Where the other words she was able to pick out. All she was able to glean from this was that they were on a mission, which either involved avoiding a border patrol, or being on border patrol.

"I'm waiting," the child replied calmly, making a point of speaking so his voice carried to her.

"Minato.." the man's voice hissed out.

 _Minato?_

It couldn't be… _could it?_

Her brow knitted into a frown, Makiko pulled herself forward again, slowly, eyes flicking back and forth between the two shinobi. Her mind was fixed on mainly two things. The child seemed to be named Minato. And the last name their mother had dropped on them before she shunshin'd away.

Namikaze.

She hadn't had much time to think of the implications of that specific last name. About how they could be related to the one that in their own respective worlds was their father. She hadn't even had time to consider what age he might be, if he was alive in whatever time they got tossed into.

She had to get a better look at him. Had to see if this was really him.

Cool air hit her face as the rock above her angled away from her body and she was able to push herself up onto her hands and knees to crawl a little closer.

Both shinobi were now looking right at her.

Her eyes were fixed on the blonde haired youth who sat nearer to her. She couldn't tell the colour of his eyes exactly. Just that they were a darker colour, but definitely not black. It was his hair style that really drew her attention. It was exactly like his as an adult. And the more she looked, the more certain she was that the messy locks were sunshine blonde

And that gentle smile was genuine as far as she could make out.

Tears came unbidden to the corner of her eyes.

Minato frowned, though he didn't move, likely wary of frightening her.

She stared at him for a moment more, and found her eyes trailing over to the other shinobi, now curious as to who he could be. White hair, she noted again. White, bushy, long hair, and dark eyes.

Holy hell…. Jiraiya! Before her was not only her father as a child, but the man she had considered closest to being a father in her own world.

She trusted them.

Without any more thought she pushed herself back down, straining her neck so she could fix her gaze on Masato. She reached out a hand as she slid downward, seeking out his, and when she found it she grasped it tightly, before trying to shake him awake.

He gave no reaction.

Shit. His fever was worse than she thought. She tugged on his arm as she tried to pull him up. He barely budged. She pulled again. No use.

So she did the only other thing she could think of that could get the ill boy out. _She cried._

"Hehp!" her little voice rang out tearfully. She could make out movement, and Minato was back on his feet, which were carrying him towards her. Moments later she could blurrily make out his face, as he knelt down at the top of the Sode. "Masa-nii sick!" she pushed the words out past a sob. She hadn't intended to cry so hard, but once she'd let it go, she couldn't stop. Like she really was a child.

"Sick?" the child Minato repeated with obvious concern. His frame shifted again, and it looked like he was glancing over his shoulder, probably at the other shinobi. "Jiraiya-sensei."

She barely made out what sounded like a sigh from the other young male, before she could see his face as well, next to Minato's. And then Minato's hand was reaching out towards her. "Come out Makiko," he was telling her softly. "So we can get your brother out."

She looked at his hand, which next to hers seemed massive, but she couldn't help but think was small and delicate for a shinobi. Then she looked back over at Masato for a moment, before back at Minato. She gave a small nod, even though the action would probably be nearly impossible to distinguish. Then she placed her little hand on top of Minato's.

The next thing she knew she was in a pair of warm, comforting arms. She cried harder.

* * *

It was evident that he had somehow managed to win the little girls full trust soon after he'd pulled her out from under the stone Sode and into his arms. When he tried to put her back down again, she had clung to him fiercely as she cried into his chest. Attempting to hand her off to Jiraiya had earned him and the other shinobi a baleful glare before she had reburied her face. Jiriaya solved the potential problem by reaching down and pulling the ill child out himself.

Makiko had lifted her head at this, turning her eyes back onto the white haired Jounin in what was unmistakably a measuring look. Like she was trying to find something in the man's appearance that told her whether or not he could be trusted with her brother.

"Makiko-chan… Jiraiya-sensei just want's to help Masato," he tried reasoning with the girl finally. To his surprise the little girl gave a small nod, before her little face was once more hidden in his tracksuit. , and although she didn't look at him again, he felt the movement in her head that signified a nod. He nearly let out a relieved sigh, arms instinctively tightening around her slight body.

And then he felt warm blood on his hand. His eyes moved immediately to his sensei's, and he saw that the man was looking at the girls feet. Since he couldn't see them himself, he turned his own attention to Masato's feet. They were bare, bloody and raw.

A concerned frown marred his young face, and he shifted the girls weight in his arms was supporting her with just his left, leaving his right free to gently take one of her hands. Her nails were cracked, lifting and bloody. Her palms scraped and nearly as raw looking as her feet. An impossible thought came to mind.

 _Did they **climb** up here?_

But that would have been impossible for such small children. Even children twice their age wouldn't have been able to do it… or at least, not without having extremely exceptional chakra control for their age.

And yet a closer inspection of her hand made him reconsider the impossibility. That looked suspiciously like chakra burns.

"Masa-nii!" the girl said insistently, turning her hand over to wrap her little fingers around one of his so she could tug just as insistently at him. Her head was back up, blue eyes fixed on him in another glare.

He pushed a smile onto his face, and very gently pulled his hand away, patting her gently on the top of her matted hair. "Hang on Makiko-Chan, we're going down," he told the girl softly, before his eyes met the onyx ones of Jiraiya once more. The man's expression was grim.

The look spoke volumes.

Jiraiya didn't think taking the two was exactly smart, but also didn't seem to want to leave them out here on their own. Of course, Minato didn't care if it was smart or not. These two where his family, right?

The very last of his family.

Without a word the two Shinobi leapt from the stone shoulder of the famous Uchiha, back across the border into Hi no Kuni.

* * *

As his feet touched back down on the rocky shore once more, Jiraiya notable ignored the curious and concerned stares of his two other students. The boy in his arms was quite ill, and despite his reservations in taking the two toddlers along with him, they would surely die if they were left alone. Masato would probably be gone to his fever before tomorrow night. They were far to underweight for children their age… he could tell that, even though he didn't have any reliable knowledge on what was a healthy weight for children to be.

If he didn't get the boy proper care soon, he would die anyway. The girl's prospects were better, but what were the chances she wouldn't succumb to a fever of her own? Her hands and feet were just as banged up, and those were definetly chakra burns he spied. The Chakra fatigue could easily be fatal for both toddlers.

"Thanks Gama," he dismissed his summons a bit absently, and the toad disappeared in a puff. Shifting the boys weight to one arm he dug out two small scrolls and ink… but he was going to need both his hands. His gaze immediately turned back to Minato. After all, given the girl's reactions earlier, he doubt she would be alright with him handing the boy off to Inoru or Kenta.

Minato seemed to understand, and once more shifted Makiko's weight to his left arm, before he extended his right to accept Masato. At any other time, Jiraiya might have thought it a comical sight to see the boy balancing to toddlers. Now was no time to be amused however.

As quickly as he could he scrawled out a message to Konaha, and then one meant for the patrol that was on its way to relieve them, before he summoned to messenger toads. He gave them the scrolls and sent them on their way, before finally turning his gaze to Inoru and Kenta, who had wisely kept quiet the whole time. "Get as much fresh water as you can," he instructed the two boys, who immediately jumped to attention, and Kenta pulled out his bamboo canteen before accepting his own.

Jiraiya took the boy back from Minato, who immediately dug out his own Canteen and handed it to Inoru. The lighter blonde moved over to waters edge after Kenta, and the two boys quickly filled the water containers. As he waited for them to finish, Jiraiya's gaze flicked about, his senses on high alert. Haruka's wounds had been fresh enough that the ones who caused it couldn't have been that far away. It was dangerous to assume that she had killed them.

Given the way Minato was shifting from foot to foot, the boy was clearly thinking along the same lines as himself. And clearly the other two boys could sense as much, as they filled the canteens with haste before returning.

He'd already decided what they were going to do in order to open up as much distance between themselves and this location as possible, while still giving the sick boy enough care that he should (hopefully) make it through to proper medical aid. However he didn't bother to explain it to the trio of genin, simply signalling them to follow before he leapt back into the trees, heading for the point in their patrol route that was closest to Konaha as this was where their relief was supposed to meet them.

He didn't need to look to know that Minato followed directly behind him, Inoru and Kenta at the rear. Nor did he need to see their faces to know that the lot of them were gritting their teeth at the pace he had set. But he knew his genin. They could maintain the pace just as long as he needed them to.

* * *

She really hadn't meant to fall asleep. Tried so hard to stay awake. But after being told by Minato to hold on, the world around her and continued to drift out of focus. She was aware of motion for a time, and then nothing at all.

And then there was a pain like she had never felt.

She could see nothing. Hear nothing. Feel nothing but this all consuming pain that seemed to tear through her very soul. She tried to scream, but no sound ever came. The agony continued relentlessly, until the only thing her mind could register beyond it was the desperate desire for it to stop.

And then the excruciating monotony was broken by a faint, gentle light, fading in and out. It seemed so far away, but where the light touched she felt slight relief. She reached for it. Strained to get to it and the end it promised. With a start she realized she was reaching, but the hands that did so were not that of the toddler she had become. They were the ruined hands of the woman she had once been, transparent and seemingly crumbling. She immediately pulled back from the light, though she couldn't figure out why.

The agony intensified.

But with that came a soundless voice. Beckoning her away from relief. She turned her head, seeking the source of the call, but her attention kept going back to the promise of the light. The plead grew fainter. She reached for what she saw as salvation. Naruko was so tired. So very tired. Surely it was alright to just let it all end and rest, right?

 _Makiko_

The word whispered on her skin, sending a pain through her that impossibly trumped the one she'd been feeling so far. The light before her grew brighter, and yet somehow colder. She flinched away, again casting about for the soundless call that left her feeling so unsure about her desire to end this terrible torment.

And there, in the inky black behind her, stretched out a bandaged, mutilated hand. She reached her own maimed hand out towards it, stepping away from the glow now at her back. There fingers touched, and the light flickered.

Before her, holding her hand tightly was Masato. And then all was black, the light completely gone.

The pain went with it.

* * *

"Get some sleep Minato," Jiraiya's stern voice met his ears, as the man placed a hand on his shoulder. He didn't spare his sensei a glance, though he shoo, his head slightly, eyes still carefully scanning their surroundings. "Kenta is taking over," his mentor went on firmly. The boy resisted the urge to bite his lip, but still refused to look at the man. It wasn't that he was upset with Jiraiya… not at all. There was just so much on his young mind though.

When the man gave his shoulder a slight squeeze, and then a push in order to steer him into the center of their 'camp' (it was little more than their pallets and the already extinguished and scattered remnants of the fire they'd had to light of of neccessity), he reached up to push the man's hand away. His gaze moved to the two small bodies resting in his sleeping bag, and he moved unerringly towards them.

A pair of vibrant blue, measuring eyes caused him to stop dead in his tracks. He almost felt as if they were trying to look right through him and into his thoughts. It was not unlike the look that he'd witnessed Makiko give Jiraiya earlier… but these eyes belonged to Masato. He expected the child to panic, having woken up to find himself with strangers, while he was in the grip of fever. However his gaze was clear, lacking the any signs of fevered delirium.

And then Masato broke their staring contest, his attention moving to the girl beside him, who's hand he was currently holding. His face became filled with concern, and then moments later determination.

Minato's feet automatically started moving again, and within a moment he was kneeling beside the two children, his hand reaching out to touch Masato's brow to check if the child was still feverish. But to his surprise his hand was caught in the boy's other hand, and instead pushed insistently towards Makiko. His deeper blue eyes immediately moved towards the girl, and he saw her brow was slick with sweat. Her skin was hot and clammy, her mouth slightly agape as she gave fevered gasps for air.

Pursing his lip, Minato looked back at his younger brother, and found himself staring into a clearly expectant face. It was almost unnerving, as the boy shouldn't have any idea of who he was, and yet was clearly expecting him to take care of his little sister. Did the boy have no sense of 'stranger danger'… or could he some how sense that Minato was 'a friend'?

Makiko's trust in him was strange as well. But now wasn't the time to try and figure why either of his small siblings decided to trust him.

He retrieved a wash cloth from his pack, and gently wiped the sweat off of the girls face, before he grabbed a clean cloth and wet it with cool water (as cool as they had available anyway) and placed that on the girls brow. They didn't have any medicine that they could give her, so this was all that he could do, aside from tucking the sleeping bag more tightly around her. As he bent to do this, the boy released her hand, and scrambled out of the bag, tucking it closer to her body on the side he'd just vacated.

Frowning at the child's action, Minato reached out to try pull the bag open again and tuck the child back into it's warmth. "It's cold out," he told the boy, but only had his hand smacked aside, before Masato re-tucked the sleeping back tightly around his sister.

"I fine," the child insisted simply, as his hand once more found Makiko's, holding it securely. His eyes however were now intently fixed on Minato once again. "What yur name?" the smaller boy asked him.

"Minato," he responded softly, taking in the boy's demeanor carefully. The child seemed relaxed. Completely at ease in his presence, and seemingly no longer concerned about his sister's condition. As if he knew the girl would get better. And there was absolutely no sign that he could see that Masato had been suffering from an even greater fever not an hour before this.

"Minato," the small child repeated his name slowly, and then went on to ask "Minato who?"

Minato who? Whatever prompted the toddler to ask him that? More importantly, how exactly did he answer? He wasn't sure. Did he come right out and say he was their elder brother? He hadn't even come fully to terms with that fact (although it was unmistakable that he already felt very protective of the two small children).

As he tried to come to a decision on how to respond, Masato shifted onto his knees, leaning slightly over his sister to have a closer look at him. The next words that left the toddler's mouth were very unexpected.

"Same eyes as Ka-san."

* * *

The way this child version of his father gave a little jolt after he told him his eyes were the same as Haruka's (they weren't really, just the same colour. They didn't hold the same emotions at all) made Masato regret he'd said it. He'd been trying to figure out just how the boy was related to him in this new world, but as Minato had remained silent, the man-child felt the need to say something. He should have thought a bit more about what that something should be, rather than blurting out the first family resemblance to Haruka he could see in his former father, now some other relative.

After crawling into their hiding place with Makiko, The last thing he'd expected was to wake up to was Minato Namikaze as a child, and a much more youthful looking Jiraiya. He'd honestly thought he was having some sort of strange delusion following that agonizing eternity he'd fallen into, only managing to pull himself out of it when he'd felt the presence of Makiko… no, Naruko, had fallen into the torture after had taken what felt like another eternity to pull her out of it with him, and then he had woken with a start, meeting the gaze of said Namikaze.

He still had trouble believing this… but pinching his leg inside of the sleeping bag had been met with a jolt of pain. This was not a dream, and along with that realization came the burning need to know. It was dampened by concern for Makiko, but after the girl was tended to, he'd turned his full attention back to the older Namikaze. How old was this Minato anyway? It seemed to him like he was still a genin, seeing as he was with Jiraiya and two other boys (who he'd barely even noticed). He wished he'd asked Kakashi if he'd know when his father had become a Chunin.

But more that that he just really wanted to know their relation now. And waiting for some sort of response after he'd shocked the other blonde was purely torture. But what else could he say? Minato wasn't even looking at him anymore. But… what was with this reaction? It seemed to him that this pointed towards Minato know who his mother was. And perhaps something worse. Know what fate had become her. Which… would perhaps explain why they were now in the company of the future Yondaime and his teacher.

"Ka-san is gone now, isn she?" He found himself asking, again without thinking. He immediately bit his lip… but the damage had already been done of course. Minato's eyes snapped back to him in shock, and he saw a multitude of emotions there. Anger, sorrow, hurt, confusion, and a hint of wariness. All he could do was unwavering meet.

"Yes," was the older boy's eventual, low response. Masato honestly hadn't been expecting the verbal confirmation. And he definitely hadn't expected the confirmation of what he'd already knew was going to happen to hurt so much. But tears were streaming down his cheeks, and the only acknowledgement he could give without sobbing piteously was a shaky nod.

Minato's eyes that were fixed on him seemed to soften, and he watched with tear blurred eyes as the older Namikaze moved closer, before he found himself lifted from the sleeping bag and into the genin's lap, held comfortingly in his arms. "I'm sorry, Masato" the older blonde was murmuring, a hand rubbing his back soothingly. "But you and Makiko-chan are safe now. I promise."

The use of his name made him stiffen, before pushing on Minato's chest so he could look at the other male's face. "Did… Ka-san tell yu names?" Minato had a sad smile on his face, but he gently wiped away the tear stains on Masato's cheeks.

"Yes," was the genin's simple response. "She wanted me to find you two and take you home." Masato wondered if Haruka had really said as much to Minato, but he figured the part about her telling him their names at least had to be true.

"Why?" He questioned, hoping it came off as something a toddler would normally ask in such a situation.

Minato patted his head lightly, but was frowning thoughtfully, clearly trying to decide how he wanted to answer the question. "Well," he began slowly. "We're family," he continued, hesitance lacing his voice.

"Fam-ily?"

He had to continue to probe. Get the full truth out of the boy. Minato perhaps realized what he was doing, as rather than answering he fell silent for some time. After several minutes, Masato tiredly leaned back into the other Namikaze. He felt absolutely drained, to be honest. And his hands and feet (which must have been bandaged by the shinobi at some point) ached slightly. He knew his little body desperately needed rest to recover.

And then Minato was shifting him, and he found himself once more laid in the sleeping bag, next to his sister. His eyes snapped to the other boy, and he sat up in protest. He needed rest, but he wanted his answers first!

Minato pushed him back down, pulling the sleeping bag up to the toddler's chin.

Then Minato sat back down, one leg up, his arm draped over his knee as he locked eyes with him. "You're Ka-san… was mine too," Minato spoke softly, so low that Masato was unsure if he'd even heard it. "Do you know what that means, Masato?"

Haruka Namikaze was Minato's mother… Oh yes, he knew exactly what that meant. He nodded, and then turned on his side, hand grabbing Makiko's again. Reassuring himself that it was still warm (still too warm actually) and not cold in death. "G'night, Minato-Nii," he murmured.

Then he allowed his eyes to close, falling into a dreamless slumber.

* * *

Jiraiya stayed off to the side as he watched the exchange between Minato and his little brother. His mind was racing with the information he'd gleaned from their interactions. First was the strange mystery that was the boy's seemingly un-fevered state when he'd woken up. And then there had been the intelligence he'd caught in the toddlers eyes. It was only for a moment, but it was significantly more than a toddler should have.

And then there was the way it seemed like the toddler was trying to direct the conversation. As if the boy had already mad the connection that he was somehow related to Minato, just not exactly how. Nor was it normal that the toddler clearly had a good understanding of death, even if he didn't have the right word for it. The tears clearly showed that he knew Minato's answer to his question about his mother meant he would never see the woman again.

There was something very un-toddler about Masato. And Minato clearly saw it two, as he continued to hesitate on how to respond to the boy. Certianly a part of it was Minato genuinely being confused on how he should feel in this situation (it was easy for the sage to spot this in the boy's tense shoulders), but his eyes showed wariness when he caught a glimpse of them. Masato had kept probing however, and finally the older Namikaze had all but said he was the twin's older brother.

Masato calling him 'Nii' had clearly not been expected by his genin pupil. Minato still sat beside his sleeping bag, eyes wide in surprise, not really seeing the curled up boy.

The white haired Jounin made his way over to his student, stopping beside the boy and clearing his throught to snap him out of his daze. Minato started, but his eyes moved to hold his own gaze. "Get some sleep. We're leaving as soon as the sun finishes rising," he told the boy. Minato needed to get what rest he could so they could continue on their way. Finally Minato looked away, nodding slightly. However, rather than going to borrow Kenta's sleeping bag, he pulled out his cloak, and laid on his side next to his two little siblings.

Jiraiya almost sighed.

With a single word, Masato had made Minato whole-heartedly accept being the older brother of these two, and the responsibilities that came with it. There was an unmistakable tenderness in the child's eyes as he reached out to lightly push Makiko's hair out of her face.

Watching the scene, Jiriaya found himself hit with the desire to keep this little family together. And so, he decided to file his observations of Masato away. If he spoke of them to the wrong people, Minato would find his little brother and sister taken away from him.

"Sensei?" Minato's voice reached him, though the boy didn't roll over to look at him.

"What?" The konoha shinobi asked, though he really just wanted to boy to sleep.

"What happens when we get back to Konoha?"

Jiraiya exhaled sharply at the unexpected question, which cuased the boy's shoulder's to tense, before Minato sat up again, blue eyes seeking out his black ones. After a moment, he put on a smile for the boy.

"Just be their brother."

* * *

 _ **Word Count:**_ _6161_

* * *

 **To the Reviewers:**

 _KaixDecayx_ : As I've said before, I'm so happy to hear that my writing moves you. I do apologize for the long wait for more, especially after you're wonderful review. I hope you enjoy this new chapter, as it's reviews like yours that make me want to keep writing~

 _Skylark Sky_ : I'm so glad to hear you feel drawn in by my writing! I do hope I don't actually send you to the emergency room though ;) I hope you continue to enjoy the story even though it's been such a long wait for this next chapter.

 _ **Thanks for the reviews~**_


	7. Ch V: Crush

**A/N:** Hello readers~

Here's the next chapter as promised, although a little later than I wanted. I was waiting for some reviews to actually show up for me on the sight, because for some reason I never got e-mail notifications, but the number of reviews for the story over-all had gone up even though all the chapters remained the same. This chapter is a little bit shorter, and a little bit fluffy if you ask me… but it was a lot of fun to write.

Hope you all enjoy it~

* * *

 _Chapter V_ _: **Crush**_

* * *

Jaw set in a firm line, the sunshine blonde shinobi came to a careful stop. Unsurprisingly Jiraiya noticed immediately and waved the other two genin to a halt as well. His onyx eyes met his pupils blue ones questioningly. Minato held his sensei's gaze for a moment, before he turned his full attention to the child he'd been carrying on his back. Her grasp had slackened on his shoulders, telling him the toddler was unconscious.

As carefully as he could he shifted the toddlers slight weight into his arms, and then balanced her on his left him so he could feel for a temperature. He felt the tension rush out of him when her skin felt normal. She was just tired. He wished he could let her continue sleeping.

"Makiko-chan," he called lightly, not wanting to raise his voice too much. He tried shaking the girl's shoulder when she did not respond to her name, and when that still didn't wake her, he called to her just a little louder. "Makiko-chan, wake up."

The little toddler let out a soft whine as she stirred, her eyes blinking open and her lips pulling into a clearly grumpy frown. "Makiko-chan… I need you to stay awake and hold on tight," he told the girl in what he hoped was a soft and soothing voice. She screwed up her eyes and practically glared at him for a moment, but then her expression slackened, and she gave him a slight nod. He smiled at her, and shifted her back once more. He waited until he felt her grip tighten, and then nodded to his team who had been silently watching the exchange.

Tree branches shook slightly as the shinobi bounded through them on their way to their next destination.

* * *

"Sensei," a boy's voice whined, "why are we in such a hurry?" As he said this he came to a stop, as if he was going to stubbornly refuse to go any further because he just didn't get why they were suddenly rushing. "We have until noon tomorrow, don't we?" His small chest was heaving from exertion, and his drab brown, messy hair was slick with sweat.

She said at the boys petulant attitude. He wasn't really much of a teammate, at least to her. Nor was the other boy. Both of them usually just ignored her or were afraid of her. The rest of the time the shot snide remarks her way, or mumbled amongst themselves about how 'woman were scary violent'.

Looking forward to see how their sensei was going to react, she only needed to look at the ashen face of that other teammate (baby faced boy with cropped black hair) to know that their sensei was not at all pleased.

Low blonde pig-tails whipped around with the motion of their owner turning. Brown eyes were narrowed, but lips turned upward in s a _smile_. "Who's the leader of this squad again, Isamu- _chan_?"

The winded boys face paled, and he sputtered out a nearly incoherent "Sensei."

"Hmm, what was that?" the Jounin inquired, smile still in place. She was absolutely terrorizing the boy.

"Tsunade-sama!" said boy practically yelped.

And just like that the woman's smile turned genuine, and she nodded in satisfaction at the response. "So then, If I decide we should get there by noon _Today_ , that's what we're going to do, isn't it?"

"Yes Sensei!" both boys answered immediately. Tsunade's gaze leveled on her when she did not respond. Unlike the boys, she didn't back down, her dark blue eyes unwavering in the face of her sensei's gaze. "Kushina-chan." The woman spoke her name expectantly.

"Sensei," Kushina began, keeping as much emotion out of her voice as she could, though the look on the woman's face told her Tsunade could tell she was annoyed. "Did something happen to the team we're relieving, ttebane?"

Not that she cared. It had that absolute sissy blonde who watched her sometimes, and two other drab boys. But the team's sensei was Tsunade's old Teammate and important to the woman somehow (though she swore Tsunade -sensei always seemed annoyed with him), and she really liked the authoritative blonde. It was nice to see a Kunoichi who wouldn't take any shit from the chauvinistic male Shinobi.

For just a moment Kushina caught a frown on Tsunade's face, before it was replaced with a look of irritation. "Nothing much. They found… _something._ " The words seemed dismissive, along with the shrug the Jounin gave, but Kushina didn't believe that for a moment. "Now get your little asses moving!"

And that was the end of the conversation. Kushina was not a big enough idiot not to recognize that. She quickly was on the move, leaving the boys sputtering behind her before they leapt after in near panic.

Really, boys were such _babies._

* * *

"Finally!"

A light thump behind him signified that the speaker of the word had slumped down on the ground in relief. There was a second moments later, and he knew it was the other genin aside from his Fa- his Brother.

That was going to take some getting used to.

He tugged insistently on Jiraiya's flak vest with one of his bandages hands. "Crusty," he called out petulantly, screwing his face up into a scowl. Because he was a toddler and a toddler would whine and be petulant about his discomfort, right? The bandages on his hands and feet _really_ needed to be changed. Of course he really needed a change of clothes too, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon unfortunately. If they'd had anything for the two toddlers to change into, they would have changed them already.

Jiraiya effortlessly swung him about in front of him, before sitting him down on a rock. "Alright Masato. You just sit tight right there for now." The white haired man instructed, patting him lightly on the top of his head.

Masato tried to swat the hand away, but it was already gone. His cheeks puffed out in a pout, and he whined out "Crusty!" again. Purely for effect. Yup.

And then his eyes were riveted on his brother who was walking over with Makiko. "I know it's uncomfortable," he was saying, as he sat Makiko down beside him. "We'll get rid of the crusties soon, I promise. Just hang tight for a bit, okay?"

Masato started to nod, still looking completely petulant, until it occured to him he shouldn't know 'uncomfortable'. He grimaced (and hoped the look made him look confused.) "Uh - Un.. Crumf… uncumftable?" He attempted to mangle his saying of the word… did it sound strange? Was that how a toddler would stumble over it? He had no idea…

"It icky!" Makiko suddenly piped up from beside him.

Minato blinked, and then gave a sort of sheepish smile. "Uncomfortable… sort of means Icky. It means something doesn't feel good." he attempted to explain.

"Icky better!" Makiko insisted, and Masato found himself inwardly wondering what she was playing at. But the look on Minato's face… well, she seemed to have a bit of a better idea of how to play a toddler than he did?

"Okay… I know it's icky. We'll fix it soon," Minato acquiesced, clearly not wanting to deal with a temper tantrum of some sort. But to Masato's surprise, rather than sitting there and 'behaving', Makiko kept pushing.

"Stinky too!" she huffed, crossing her arms and glaring at Minato, and Jiraiya who had been watching the exchange with a barely perceptible smile. This prompted the man to look up at the sky, a calculating expression, and Minato to look… well, just short of aghast.

"Uh…. we don't have anything to change you into," he was saying, and Masato really thought he was on the verge of panicking. Makiko was glaring at him, a full pout on and her little arms crossing, repeating the word 'stinky' a touch louder. Minato seemed completely at a loss on how to deal with this near temper tantrum.

"Actually," Jiraiya spoke up suddenly, drawing all eyes to him (even the two genin who had been flopped down on their backs until now). "We should have time to give them a bath in the stream and wash their clothes." The man stated matter of factly.

Minato frowned at this however. "But sensei… we don't have anything to put them in while their clothes dry," he pointed out. "they could catch a cold…"

Masato's head was moving back and forth between his now brother, and once mentor. Jiraiya simply shrugged with a "We can just wrap them up in our cloaks for awhile." To which Minato didn't respond, but remained looking rather troubled. Makiko didn't pipe back up in a petulant tone again, so he was left looking between the two, waiting for some sort of agreement that seemed might not come for awhile (in reality not even a minute of silence had passed yet)

The water of a stream would be really cold… but to be clean again! Well… cleaner, anyway. That would be amazing, honestly. It had been what, a week since they'd last got a bath? Longer maybe?

"Clean!" he found himself shouting out, and he nearly shrunk back as all eyes focused on him immediately. Instead he tried taking a page out of Makiko's book. "Icky bad! Clean!" He screwed up his eyes again, and crossed his arms, cheeks puffed out again in a pout.

"Clean! Clean!" Makiko repeated insistently.

Their brother pursed his lips for a moment, and then his expression broke, a sigh slipping passed his lips. "Alright. Lets get you two clean," the boy relented.

Masato reached out towards him immediately with a "Minato-nii." Then he felt the little hand of Maki on his shoulder, her face now in a confused frown rather than a petulant one.

"Mi-nato-nii?" she said the name and honorific questioningly, and he immediately realized his mistake. Or rather, his and Minato's mistake. Neither of them had told her that Minato was their older brother all through the day (although to his credit, Masato hadn't realized that Minato hadn't told her before, while he was out).

Minato seemed unfazed however, and with surprising ease he lifted them both up, one on either hip. "You're Ka-san was also mine, Makik-chan" he explained simply as he balanced the two. Masato clutched at his shirt, as the sensation of being carried still sometimes was a bit off putting. He'd rather use his own feet… but he had no footwear and they had already taken quite the beating. "So that makes me you're older brother."

"Masa-nii older brofer," the girl stated, and now Masato was wondering if somehow it was really a toddler mind in control of her words right now. Was Makiko not as in control as he was?

"You can have more than one older brother," Minato explained with a slight smile, even as he started walking towards the sound of a burbling stream. Makiko was silent for a time, and then burried her face into Minato's shoulder. He was just able to make out the two words she murmured.

"Okay, Nii-san."

* * *

Older brother…

That was honestly not the relation to Minato she'd been expecting. Of course, she hadn't had time or the presence of mind to wonder about it when she'd first seen him. She'd been more concerned with Masato. Today though, while she rode on his back, she had spent a little time pondering it. She hadn't really thought Haruku was old enough to have a child of Minato's age which she'd put in the range of ten to twelve since she remembered her mother saying he'd been small for his age until into his teens. And while Haruka's hair had definetely been graying, she thought her look of age was more stress induced than _actual age_.

She wasn't exactly sure how she felt about having two older brothers in this new life. She'd lived her first essentially wishing she had an older brother, and thus deciding rather selfishly to view her male conterpart as one. And now she had him as her real older brother… well, assumed real older brother. They'd never actually found out which was truly the older twin, but since Haruka never corrected her when she called him 'nii', they'd silently agreed to just go with that.

She also had the man she once knew as her father as her eight years older brother. She'd never gotten to know him as her father, but thinking of him as her brother now was strange to say the least.

But an uncle who was only eight, nine, or ten years older than you would get kind of annoying wouldn't it? A cousin would kind of just be like an older brother if he was all the family you had left, and eight years older wasn't that bad. It was the kind of age gap of a _real_ older sibling who would look out for you and take care of you. At least that's how she saw it.

But again, this man… boy, was her father in her orginal world. It wasn't so easy to look past that. Still, she should just be happy they were still closely related, shouldn't she? That she would get a taste of what being a family was like? Even if that family didn't have parents… it was still loads better than how she grew up the first time, wasn't it?

Yes it was. It had to be.

That decided, she pulled her face out of Minato's shoulder and turned it towards the sound of water. Her blue eyes fixed on the happily gurgling stream that was their destination. The water looked cold.

She shivered.

* * *

A sigh of relief escaped the genin's mouth as he tucked his sleeping bag around the now sleeping toddlers. Trying to bathe two toddlers in a stream, without someone else to help was _hard_ to put it lightly. The two decided to try and have a water fight, and for awhile there it was all he could do to keep them from toddling out into water that was too deep for them. It took him nearly fifteen minutes to get them to sit still after they started, so he could finish washing their hair with the little soap he had (shinobi didn't often have time to clean on missions like this, but they usually brought a small amount of unscented soap with them just in case the chance arose.)

Undressing them and getting them clean had given him a glimpse of just how hard life must have been for them so far. Heartbreakingly he'd been able to count each of their ribs, and even the joints of their spines. Yet this entire time neither of them had complained of being hungry. They were so used to going without food it seemed, that it was honestly a miracle they'd showed so much energy in the water.

He _had_ to protect them. Give them a better life.

"Sensei," he called over his shoulder, his voice only just loud enough for the Jounin to hear him. He didn't want to wake up the two slumbering toddlers after all. "It was you're idea to give them a bath, you could have helped." Was he pouting? Damn… he totally was right now. He schooled his face immediately, hoping Jiraiya hadn't caught his lip being jut out.

If the man did, he didn't mention it. He just laughed at him.

"You're their brother, Minato," the white haired shinobi stated simply, as if that _obviously_ made it his job.

Minato wanted to sigh, but forced it back when there was some rustling in the bushes nearby. His eyes snapped that way, but he immediately relaxed when he saw it was just Kenta and Inoru returning from the stream with the damp clothes the two toddlers had been wearing. They were grumbling about having to wash them, but still hung them by the smokeless fire their sensei had lit while they'd all be busy at the stream.

"Anyway, Jiraiya-sensei," Minato continued, eyes moving back to the jounin. "What do you make of this?" he asked, his head gesturing to the two twins. Jiraiya frowned, and stood from where he'd been lounging, walking over to see what his sunshine-blonde pupil was on about. "Their hair," he added, pointing towards the mismatched patch of hair that sat to the left of Masato's brow.

Both twins had messily chopped, shoulder length hair (and the stuff was terribly unruly) in a mainly sunshine blonde like his own. Both also had a patch of hair that stood out from the rest that more or less framed the left side of their little face. That was were the similarity stopped however. Masato's patch of hair was darker. A medium brown that stood out starkly from the rest of his hair. He'd almost missed Makiko's at first, but now clean and reflecting the sunlight, it too was an unmistakably different colour from the rest of her hair. A pure white.

Jiraiya squated next to the sleeping barely-toddlers, and gently pushed the hair to the side at Masato's scalp, before doing the same with the small girl. "Birthmarks," he said simply. "Their scalps are miscoloured in relation to the hair."

Minata allowed himself to sigh this time. "Sensei… their in the same spot… what are the chances of twins having two identically placed birthmarks."

"Two?"

Oh… right… he hadn't gotten that far yet. "On their stomach's, the right side. It starts at their hip kind of like a curved gash, and ends in something more akin to a puncture… there's even a roundish mark on their backs that matches up." As if they'd been impaled by a sword that was then twisted in the wound. That's what it had made him think of immediately when he'd seen it on Makiko, the light colour making him think it was a scar. But the skin was smooth, and the darker mark on Masato definitely wasn't the right colour to be a scar.

Jiraiya looked thoughtful for a moment, but then shrugged dismissively (much to Minato's displeasure). "I wouldn't worry about it kid. Birthmarks have never hurt anyone."

"Right…" the boy muttered, completely unconvinced that there was nothing there. No meaning behind these nearly identical birthmarks that his two little siblings shared.

"Alright Minato, go find some food," Jiraiya's next words caused him to start. Food?

"We've got ration bars, sensei…" he reminded the Jounin… and then realized it was kind of foolish to do so. There was no way Jiraiya didn't know that.

"You really think they've got strong enough teeth to eat em?" was the man's response, and Minato went from feeling foolish to completely chagrined.

"Right," he muttered again, and getting to his feet quickly. He needed something that could be mashed up for them to eat, probably…

Minato was finally beginning to realize how much work it was going to be to take care of a pair of toddlers. Could he handle it?

He didn't really have choice did he? He had to.

* * *

Tsunade ignored the pleas for a break that the two boys in her little squad had started to make over the last thirty minutes(seriously, what was old man Hiruzen thinking giving her a genin squad with two whiny boys... giving her a trio of genin at all seemed senseless enough.) Honestly, she had reservations about kids their age being made shinobi (she wasn't really one to talk when she'd become a shinobi at six), but considering there was an impending war…

They were also almost to their destination, which meant if she pushed them a little further then she could finally have peace and quiet from their winging. At least Kushina was silent, and easily keeping pace. The Uzumaki girl was a firey one, that was for sure. And had boundless energy. But she brought her own fair share of troubles to the team (Tsunade was hoping they'd all reach chunin soon so she could be rid of the boys at least.) First was the fact that being firey meant she had quite the temper (not unlike her own). She terrorized the two boys _more_ than Tsunade herself. However, there was also the concern that enemy nin would target the girl, seeing as she was an Uzumaki, her bright red hair all but giving that fact away.

And why had Konoha taken in an Uzumaki following the destruction of Uzushiogakure? It wasn't purely because the two villages got along so well, she knew (although others might not make the connections she did.). Her Grandmother was nearing the end of her life… the Uzumaki brat would be her replacement as Jinchuriki. Though she knew this, She didn't tell Hiruzen she was aware… the old man probably already knew. Since he made no mention of it, Tsunade decided the best course of action was to keep the knowledge to herself.

Kushina, who was already at odds with the majority of the male population around her age, did not need the added stigma the Kyuubi would bring her if the population at large knew what Tsunade did. Though, after that week of Kushina being utterly unbearable to be around, Tsunade had a feeling the girl knew what her future held; She also believed the red-head had yet to come fully to terms with it. Another good reason to keep her knowledge about it to herself, at least for now.

Really, the girl on her team was causing her more stress than the two _infantile_ boys combined.

And then there was the fact that not one of them was interested in iryou-ninjutsu.

Really, what had Hiruzen been thinking?

Tsunade almost sighed, but instead yanked herself out of her internal reverie when she caught the sounds of grumbling boys. It wasn't from behind her however, but ahead. With a finally leap she passed through the cover of foliage and touched down in a clearing. Eyes immediately pinpointing the the two grumbling boys (who were now utterly silent). She didn't spare them more than that glance, instead moving her attention to the white haired man who sat beside a smokeless fire, and the sleeping bag that was next to him.

Her genin landed behind her, casting their gazes about the clearing, and then freezing completely when they saw two sunshine blonde heads poking out of the sleeping bag. Honestly, Tsunade was a little bit surprised herself for a split second. Sure, she'd read Jiraiya's message, but she'd half expected it to be some sort of a prank.

With the two little heads squarely fixed in her vision, the blonde made a b-line for Jiraiya. "Where's the Namikaze brat?"

Jiraiya, who hadn't even looked up when she arrived, finally lifted his head, only to find her eyes weren't even on him. "Gone to look for something we can feed the mini-namikaze Brats."

Tsunade nearly stopped where she was, eyes snapping to Jiraiya. Mini-namikaze brats? Certainly, Jiraiya had to be brief with his words when he'd sent the toad to her (and one back to Konoha she assumed), but the fact that the two toddlers they'd found were related to Minato was _important._ Certianly she'd know there had to be some reason as to why Jiraiya had decided to bring a pair of toddlers he found along with him, but she hadn't expected it to be a relation between Minato and them. She figured it simply had to do with the deceased missing Konoha nin that was mentioned.

"The nin?"

"Haruka," The man responded, leaving of the last name, perhaps to not some how trouble the three genin who were still standing there, trying to figure out what was going on. Tsunade however, quickly made several connections from the name. Namikaze Haruka, Minato's mother, and it seemed, the mother of the two toddlers.

Her gaze returned to the sleeping bag, as she knelt on the ground beside it. Their hair was just slightly damp she noted, before her attention moved to the discoloured strands. Strange. She filed it away for later perusal, and instead carefully pealed back the sleeping bag, only to find their slight bodies were wrapped up further in konoha issue travelling cloaks. "How old?" she asked, slipping easily into medic mode as she went about unwrapping the sleeping toddlers so she could better examine them.

"Twenty-three months," her former teammate responded, and out of the corner of her eye she saw him waving an arm at her genin, likely gesturing for them to come take a seat.

Not quite two years? After her initial look, she'd guessed younger but at least half a year. But after she finished unwrapping the boy, the reason for that became clear. He was borderline emaciated. He was shivering now as the air touched his exposed skin, but he remained sleeping. Which didn't surprise her… he hardly had a single ounce of fat on his bones throughout his entire body. She'd, sadly, seen children in a worse state, but not one so young.

Her gaze momentarily moved away from the boy to her genin, who had moved over to sit on the other side of the fire. The boys… were uselessly sprawled out on the grass. "Kushina-chan."

"Yes Sensei?" the girl immediately responded. Tsunade turned her eyes back to what she was doing, her attention now on the boys bandaged hands.

"Help the Namikaze brat in finding some food. Berries, and something a little less sweet to mash them with." She didn't need to look to know the girl was already on her feet again, although the reply she gave sounded just slightly annoyed. She put that to the girl finding Minato annoying (although in a different way to other boys). Satisfied with what she'd gleaned so far, she wrapped the boy back up since it would be bad if he got sick from the chill. His immune system would have no strength at all given how undernourished he was.

"What happened to their hand's and feet?" she asked Jiraiya as she inspected the girl, immediately noting said appendages were also bandaged. The girl wasn't much better off than the boy, having only a little more meat on her bones than he did, but her knees also being wrapped in bandaging.

"They were on the run, barefoot," was the man's response… and it told her very little to be honest. It explained the state of their feet, but not exactly their hands, or the girls knees. She couldn't imagine they'd been on the run _crawling_ after all. She glanced and Jiraiya sharply, expecting him to elaborate, but the man simply met her gaze.

Frowning, the woman turned back to the girl, and reached for the hand closest to her, deftly loosening and unraveling the wrapping from her tiny hand. When she'd exposed the girls palm, she found herself staring at the most unexpected thing yet. Among the scraps that littered the small palm and fingers, there was patches of raw skin from what was unmistakably chakra burns.

She nearly cursed, but realizing just why Jiriaya hadn't told her about this she bit back the swear on her lips. These to, most likely, had climbed something _with the use of Chakra._ While she was certain Jiraiya would be forthright with the Hokage, there were other individuals in the village that very well could take… _cruel_ measures in reaction to this knowledge. To her, these were just two terribly neglected (and likely amazingly prodigious) toddlers. To others they'd be seen as a raw resource to be forged into superb shinobi tools, if not a down right _threat,_ considering who their mother was.

And sure, the four genin there answered to them, but could they be trusted not to mention this to someone? Not really… they were just kids, even if they were Shinobi. It was just as likely as not that they would say something they didn't realize was bad for the toddlers, as keep their mouth shut.

Tsunade sent her gaze back to Jiraiya sharply, the man meeting it for a moment before giving her a nearly imperceptible nod. She returned it. Jiraiya had clearly decided to do what was right (though she wondered if his reasons were because it was so, or because of Minato) and would be careful with the knowledge. She would do the same.

Now with an entirely knew understanding of the situation her former teammate had found himself in, Tsunade bent back down to the child, wrapping up all but the arm she was inspecting, and then pulling out some supplies from her pouch. If she treated the chakra burns now, then a less practiced medic would hopefully mistake them as regular burns that had been healing for awhile.

It seemed that Jiraiya's knack for getting into bizzare and tight situations was rubbing off on Namikaze Minato.

Hopefully the blonde was better at getting out of them than his Sensei.

* * *

"There you are, Namikaze!"

The unexpected, feminine voice almost caused Minato to jump. He whirled around, his body tensing… until he saw a head of gorgeous red hair. Oh shit.

Kushina.

"Ku - Uh - Uzumaki-san!" He sputtered out, completely at a loss now. In fact, it was a bit amazing he'd managed not to drop the berries he'd gathered so far. The girl was marching towards him, her own arms cradling various scavenge-ables as well.

"Show me what you've got, ttebane!" she barked at him, but didn't wait for any sort of response, leaning over to look at what he had. What did he do!? She was way to close! Before he was able to try and figure anything out, the girl had straightened with a sigh, and gave him what he thought was a disapproving look. What had he done wrong? He immediately averted his eyes. Was he blushing? Damn… he was wasn't he.

"Just berries…. you suck, ttebane," the girl stated simply, and then he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye that he figured was her shrugging. "Oh well, I got enough other stuff. This should do I think… Tsunade-sensei mentioned once that eating to much after starving for a long time will a person sick, ttebane."

Did she know that her 'ttebane's' were adorable?

"Earth to the Sissy!" Kushina nearly shouted. His eyes refocused and snapped to her. She was clearly glaring at him now. "Lets get back, ttebane."

Feeling a little bewildered, the boy followed after her. She talked on and on (much to his surprise, as he'd never seen her talk that much to any of their classmates in the academy). Her words were riddled with the occasional ttebane, and he felt like his cheeks were nearly on fire with the adorableness of it, coupled with her breathtaking red hair, and just being in her presence this long. He'd never been this close to her before had he?

As another ttebane fell past her lips, Minato decided that no, she had no idea how _adorable_ it was.

* * *

 ** _Word Count:_** _5218_

* * *

 **To the Reviewers:**

 _PriceTage:_ Thank you~ I certainly will.

 _Skylark Sky_ : Oh goodness… how would one work out their heart I wonder. Well I'm glad your health is improving. Thanks for taking the time to review~ I'm definitely going to keep at this ;)

 _Aggronaist :_ Thank you~ I hope this chapter met your expectations

 _KaixDecayx_ : Thank you for you're kind words, and your time reviewing~ It's going to be an interesting ride.

 ** _Thanks for the reviews~_**


	8. Ch VI: Break

**A/N:** Hello readers~

Another chapter for you all. This chapter is honestly kind of a transition chapter. I enjoyed writing most of it just the same, and it's got it's share of fluff… but we're heading back to some serious tones here too. Thursday's chapter will be more meaty though ;)

Hope you all enjoy~

* * *

 _Chapter VI_ _:_ **Break**

* * *

"Red."

Every muscle in her body tensed as the single word met her ears. With a huff she slammed down the mortar and pestle Tsunade-sensei had given her to mash up the berries and herbs they'd found to feed the two toddlers. Her eyes snapped in the direction the word had come from, and she found herself staring at the brilliant blue eyes of one of said toddlers. Was it the girl or the boy?

"Pwetty red," the smiling child chirped as she pulled the cloak that was covering her closer to her chest with one hand, and reached out towards Kushina with the other.

Pretty?

She elbowed the wussy Namikaze in his side, hissing out a "Which one is that," under her breath. She heard the boy placing down the mortar and pestle he'd been using (he hadn't been doing a very good job of it though, constantly stopping, and his movements jerky).

"whi- oh, uh, Makiko-chan," the boy stuttered out, and she almost rolled her eyes at him. Did he have a speech impediment? He always seemed to be stuttering. Not that that was a bad thing exactly? It annoyed her to no end, but the world took all kinds of people, and she wasn't going to pick on him for something that might not even be his fault.

She'd just pick on his general sissy-ness instead.

Not right now though, as her attention needed to be on the toddler that had just called her hair pretty. Or at least she thought that was what the girl had said. She grabbed the glop she'd made, as well as a spoon (again courtousy of Tsunade, who carried two for the purpose of spoon feeding some medicines that couldn't be dissolved in water). "Hey Makiko-chan," she called out lightly, moving over to the sleeping bag and sitting down beside the girl. She briefly glanced over at the boy, but turned her full attention back Makiko when she noted he was still sleeping. "You think my hair is pretty?"

The girl nodded enthusiastically, one hand still reaching out towards her. "Pwetty red!" the girl repeatedly happily.

Only one person before now had ever called her hair pretty before, and that was Mito Uzumaki (well, Senju technically, she had been the first's wife and all). It was strange to hear, but still brought a slight smile to her face. "Thanks, ttebane!" she responded, before effortlessly lifting the girl into her lap. "You hungry, Makiko-chan?"

The girl now sitting on one of her knees (Kushina sat cross legged), screwed up her little face in thought before nodding and announcing loudly "Very!"

Kushina almost laughed at the child's enthusiasm, as she scooped a spoonful of the berry goop. "Okay Maki-chan… can I call you Maki-chan ttebane?" she asked the child, simply because she thought it was cute (hey, she was allowed to like cute things to ttebane!) The girl nodded happily, and then opened her mouth expectantly. Gosh… this child was too adorable. She lifted the spoon to the child's small mouth, and the girl closed her lips around it to consume the glop. "How is it?" she found herself asking.

The little toddler tilted her had from side to side, one cheek puffed out and then the other, as if she was pushing the mush around in her mouth with her tongue (she probably was), and then the girl swallowed. "Better than ol' ick bread wif the green stuff," the girl announced.

Kushina found herself staring. That was quite the sentence for such a young child. She wasn't even two yet right? Her eyes moved to Minato, who had picked up his mortar and pestle again to resume trying to make gloop of his own, but his hands were _still_ not moving consistently. He was instead staring at her with a confused frown. Kushina felt like shouting at him for it, but not wanting to scare the toddler on her lap, she refrained. "Oi, wuss boy… when's their birthday?"

Minato blinked, and then his frown turned contemplative. "Uh… October…Fifteenth, I guess?"

"You… guess, ttebane?" she asked lowly, frowning at the boy, even as she gave little Maki-chan another mouthful of food.

"Well… uh," the boy faltered in words, as if he couldn't find how to say what he was trying to. Really… his inability to speak was so annoying. "there wasn't… exactly time to find out their exact birthday…" He gave his fractured explanation. "We were just told it's in a month - I mean, supposed to be in a month from when we found them so…"

Okay. Wow. Enough.

"Right. Yesterday was the fifteenth, so that would make their birthday October fifteenth, by that logic," she finished for him so he would shut up. His mouth snapped shut, and he simply nodded, cheeks flushed in what she assumed was embarrassment. Then the boy averted his gaze, and resumed mashing up the berries.

Well, at least Minato Namikaze was different from other boys. He was an unbearable wuss, but he didn't pick fights with her.

In fact, his wussy-ness was _kind of_ cute.

* * *

Jiraiya was having a hard time not bursting out into near hysterical laughter. He'd known for awhile that Minato had it bad for the red-headed genin who'd been put under Tsunade-hime (He was still trying to figure out what Hiruzen was thinking with that one). This however… well, the boy had it a lot worse than he had thought. He was hopelessly enamored with the girl, to the point where he probably couldn't tell which foot was left and which was right. He was doing a great job of making a fool of himself, really.

His eyes moved away from his abashed student, and to the red-haired girl. She was easily feeding the toddler in her lap, who seemed ecstatic to be getting attention from Kushina. Which he couldn't help but find a little strange. Makiko had refused to be held by him at any time, though she didn't protest when he changed her bandages that morning, sitting patiently as he'd done it.

She wouldn't let Inoru or Kenta near her with out glaring at them or hiding his face in Minato's tracksuit jacket.

The white haired man was pouting. He didn't bother to hide it though, letting out a sigh. "Makiko-chan won't take to me, but she seems to like the Uzumaki girl pretty well," he muttered as if he was terribly upset over it.

Tsunade who sat next to him let out a snort. "She's a smart girl then."

Ouch.

"Don't say that, Tsunade-hime," he whined, while he discreetly snaked an arm towards her.

Or not so discreetly.

He yelped moments later as his hand had been smacked away, _hard._

* * *

At the sound of a yelp Masato was jolted awake. He shot up into a sitting position, eyes flicking about in search of the source of the sound, and chest heaving in something close to panic. And then he caught sight of something red. Heart pounding in his chest and a knot of dread in his stomach, the man-toddler turned her gaze towards it.

No. Way.

Wide eyed Masato found himself staring at someone he had not been prepared to see anytime soon. I mean, at least not until they got back to Konoha at the earliest. What were the chances that two genin teams would meet for some reason during a mission outside of the village, and one would have a Namikaze Minato, and the other the one and only Red-hot Habenero.

Uzumaki Kushina.

Holy shit.

He just continued to stare, dumbfounded. Until the girl noticed, and sent him a blood curdling glare, all while dutifully feeding his little sister who was sitting happily in her lap.

Makiko had all the luck.

He averted his gaze, unsure on how he could possibly salvage this situation right now… how had Makiko managed to get the young version of their once mother to take to her anyway?

Whooa…. was that Tsunade-ba-chan!

Now that was something he really hadn't been expecting. Tsunade as Kushina's jounin-sensei? Wow.

Actually… it made a lot of sense, maybe? I mean, from what his own mother had told him, she was sort of a violent woman. Just like Tsunade. And Sakura-chan.

That did not make it any less weird.

"Masato," Minato's voice reached his ears, and he turned his head towards the one day fourth Hokage (as long as they didn't some how mess that up for him). He didn't have to look far, as the other sunshine blonde boy had been walking toward him, and now took a seat beside him (trying, and failing, at not casting glances in Kushina's direction). "Open up."

Open up?

Oh… he was holding a spoon. What was that purple looking goop?

His stomach rumbled. Did it really matter what it was? He needed to eat (though he was desperately craving Ramen, and had been for _ages_ now.) He opened his mouth, allowing the older namikaze to insert the untensil. Well… the gloop wasn't the most palatable, tasking sweet but with a hint of something bitter too… but at least it was better than eating moldy food, right?

But wait a minute, he was forgetting something wasn't he? Hadn't there been a yelp or something? That was what woke him up…

"My students are all so heartless," he heard a groan come from nearby.

It took almost everything Masato had not to snigger, the pieces all falling together as he recognized the voice as Jiraiya's. Really, would the Taod sage never learn?

 _Not when he dubs himself a super-pervert._

* * *

Tsunade sent another glare Jiraiya's way, the man sprawled out on the grass now with a hand to his severely reddened cheek.

The male toddler was awake now however, so it was time for her to make preperations to leave, seeing as her two male Genin had had ample rest by now. The sooner her squad was on potral, the sooner Jiraiya could get the two little tykes back to Konaha… although for the sake of there future it might be better to take their time so as to formulate a plan. _If_ the two were so dangerously undernourished, and likely lacked much of an immunity at all.

So with this in mind, Tsunade pulled out a container of the cream she'd used earlier on their chakra burns, along with a few medicines she had on hand that they could use in the case that one, or both twins developed a severe fever. They weren't really suitable for use on such small children, but in tiny doses, with nothing else that they could give them, they would do the trick long enough to get them to Konoha.

 _If_ they could get there the same day they started administering them.

She felt Jiraiya's eyes on her, and without looking she gestured him over. The man seemed to have enough sense not to be the insufferable pervert that he again, and simply sat beside her, leaning in. She began without preamble to tell him what all of it was in a low whisper. Jiraiya silently took it all in.

These moments where the man was attentive and studious were nothing short of _odd,_ if not flat out bizarreand borderline disconcerting.

She didn't tell him she felt the best choice was to head to the village as quickly as possible… she was sure he had already come to that decision. So with the white haired Jounin aware of how to use the salve and medicines she was leaving behind, the granddaughter of the first got to her feet. "Off your asses, Brats. Time to go."

She could feel Kushina's eyes on her, but her own attention was on the two boys. Isamu was getting up with a groan and mutters of protest under his breath, while round-faced Saburou hadn't even budged. Her eyes narrowed into a glare, and seemingly sensing it the boy jerked into a sitting position, before jumping to his feet.

Kushina continued to feed the girl in her lap.

Turning her gaze to the two twins that were being fed by the red-head and sunshine blonde Genin. Minato seemed to tense for a moment, but he continued to talk softly to Masato as he fed the boy. Kushina looked up at her, gave a slight shrug, and then scooped up the last of the berry mash she'd made, popping it into the little girl's mouth.

Tsunade almost smiled. Cheeky brat.

Kushina patted the little girls mismatched locks, before carefully setting her down on the sleeping back the two twins had occupied before. "Better make sure you wash the Mortar and Pestles, Wuss." She shot over at Minato, before she was on her feet.

Tsunade almost wanted to laugh. The way Minato and Kushina interacted was certainly amusing. At least the boy wasn't a pervert like his sensei, because then he wouldn't stand a chance in hell with the girl he was so clearly enamoured with.

Not that his chances now were very good; he couldn't even properly talk to the Uzumaki. Maybe she should give him some tips? Then again, watching him flounder was amusing… and the best result of his little crush would be him getting over it with time, or managing to woo the girl through his own merit.

Either way, she'd have plenty of entertainment.

* * *

Minato felt his brother pull insistently at his sleeve, and snapped his eyes away from the swaying red hair of Kushina as she followed her sensei into the trees. His face still felt like it was on fire from blushing so much, but he went back to feeding the boy who had clearly grown annoyed with waiting for the next mouthful. The boy made quick work of what remained of the mash, and Minato for a moment wondered if he should make more.

But one of the things Kushina had said on their way back from gather was that over-feeding those who'd been starved for a long time would make them sick. So instead he wrapped the boy back up, setting beside their sister, before he retrieved the other mortar and pestle. He turned to take both to the stream to wash, but was intercepted by Inoru. "I'll do that I guess," the boy was saying. "Their clothes are dry," he added when Minato looked at him questioningly.

Ah.

He handed the items to his teammate, and turned instead to the heavily patched, and still somewhat stained garments his little siblings had been wearing. Kenta was extinguishing the fire, while their sensei was slipping the items Tsunade had given him into various pouches. Jiraiya didn't need to say it, the three Genin already knew it was time to be getting on their way.

Minato quickly gathered up the the twin's clothes, and hurried back to the two, who both still sat on his sleeping bag, simply watching him. Patiently?

"Lets get you two dressed, okay?" he told them, and both nodded, Masato getting slowly to his feet and dropping the cloak that was around him, pointing a little finger to the brown pair of pants. Minato stood there for a moment, before he finally understood the boy was indicating that pair as his. He squated down next to his sleeping bag, setting down the extra pieces of clothing in favor of holding the waistband of Masato's pants open for him to step into. Before he could instruct the boy to do so, he felt Masato's tiny hands on his shoulders, before the boy stepped into his pants, and he pulled them up. The boy then pointed to the mainly grey shirt, which Minato grabbed immediately. He slipped Masato's arms easily into the shirt as the child didn't need to be asked to hold them over his head. Just like that, one of the twins was already dressed.

Makiko didn't need to be asked either. She was dressed just as quickly as her brother (more so actually, since she didn't need to point out which clothes were hers). Although she had her nose scrunched up the entire time, clearly not exactly happy with the grey pants, and half grey, half brown shirt that she needed to wear. "Scratchy," she whined.

The cloth would be. Some of the patches appeared to be _burlap_.

"Sorry Makiko-chan, Nii-san will get you new clothes as soon as we get home," he told the girl with an apologetic smile.

"Home? What that?"

That was not a question he had expected. Nor had he expected it in twin voices, his two little sibling saying it almost perfectly in sync with each other. He stared at the pair dumbfounded for a moment, and then pulled them both to him in a hug. They didn't even know what _home_ was? It was a painful reminder of how tough their lives had been so far.

"Home is a safe place where families live together. Somewhere you can always go back to." He told them softly, his voice quivering slightly with emotion.

"When?"

Again their voices came as one.

He pulled back from the hug, one of his hands still on a shoulder each. "Soon." He didn't know how soon, since he didn't know how quickly the Jounin wanted to travel, and how often they'd need to rest. But he was faced with matching pouts from his two little siblings. "We might get there after the sun goes to sleep and then gets up again," he tried to explain to them, "but the sun might go to sleep and wake up again after that."

"Can count!" the boy suddenly announced, frowning at his brother.

"Count to… one… two… um… three…. FOUR!" This came from Makiko, who was counting on her fingers as she counted out loud.

Minato was honestly past surprise with this new revelation. These two, while not understanding some things, were strangely smart for their age in other things. "Okay… We'll be home before the sun wakes up again three times," was all he said instead.

"Okay!" both of them chirped out, before they pushed his hands off their shoulders, even their movements in sync as the bounced around him to stand on the grass, seemingly knowing he needed to pack up his sleeping bag.

He quickly did just that.

* * *

Jiraiya was really pushing his Genin team hard, Masato thought.

They'd only stopped long enough to feed him and Makiko while the sun was still up, and then kept going in the night. He cursed his toddler body as he fell asleep some time not long after sun-set, and didn't even wake up whenever the had stopped and he'd been once more placed in his older brother's sleeping bag with his sister.

He only woke when Minato had come over to sleep beside them after what must have been his turn at watch, and then he wasn't awake for very long. The next time he woke, it was still _dark_ out, but he was already being carried by Jiraiya as they moved through the trees. Although it wasn't long after that that the once man saw the sky was lightening with coming dawn.

They'd stopped again when the sun had finished rising, Minato feeding him and Makiko again, not eating himself until they were done. Makiko fell asleep as soon as her little stomach was full, but Masato was determined not to.

And then he was waking up again with a hand shaking his shoulder, Jiraiya telling him they were going again. Glancing at the position of the sun told him it had been nearly three hours. He was not impressed with himself.

He stubbornly kept himself awake even when he felt drowzy after a few hours of boring traveling.

"You're awfully quiet kid," Jiraiya suddenly spoke up, causing Masato to jerk slightly. "Easy there, we don't want you to fall." The man said with an air of amusement.

Masato did not find it funny. The Sannin (was he a Sannin yet?) had startled him! Damn… his shinobi senses had totally dulled in this new body. "I need be quiet." He finally responded to the man. "Right?" he added that on as an afterthought.

The man was quiet himself for a time, before he responded with "It does help." But the way there was no emotion in the words was a little disconcerting.

Clearly Jiriaya was in some way suspicious about him (and Makiko of course). He shouldn't be surprised about that though, as their mother (he felt tears in the corner of his eyes when he thought of her still), Haruka, had been suspicious of them. Jiraiya, despite being a terrible pervert, was certainly an observant Shinobi. If Haruka had noticed peculiarities in their behaviour, it would follow that Jiraiya would have to notice such as well.

Yet the man didn't ask him anything else. In fact, it wasn't until hours later, when the Jounin once more called a stop, that he spoke again at all. He gave instructions to his genin subordinates, and Masato knew this would be a short stop again.

Berries and herbs were mashed up for him and his sister to eat, and he sat there quietly, waiting for his brother to finish feeding Makiko.

And then he suddenly found himself sitting in Jiraiya's lap, with the man holding a spoon in front of his face. It was more out of shock that he opened his mouth, but the spoon was pushed inside regardless. Not wanting to choke, Masato tried to ignore the fact that it was Jiraiya feeding him, and obediently kept opening his mouth for the mash after swallowing each spoonful.

Seriously though, just what was his once mentor thinking?

* * *

For the sake of wasting as little time as possible feeding the mini-namikaze brats, Jiraiya had scooped up the boy to do it himself. It took another fifteen minutes of their time for Minato to feed them both himself, and Jiraiya didn't want to waste that time. Sure, at the end of a day that would only be a half hour to an hour (at the most) of time lost. But they could cover a lot of distance in that time, or one of the trio of genin could get enough rest to keep them going a few more hours.

Although, there was a second reason as to why he snatched up the boy without any warning. He was observing these two and their reactions. They were both deadly silent during their travelling, only speaking to softly say they needed to pee or something. From observation of other children their age (though he never had observed them that closely) the two should be chomping at the bit right now.

But then, from the state of malnutrition they were in, and Haruka's appearance of long standing self neglect; the two toddlers had likely be raised with the need to keep quiet, reasonable, and pateint instilled in them. They did have a couple of outbursts that were more characteristic of their age, but it was also quite easy to calm them down after these. He had the feeling it shouldn't be.

They were also very bright. Their speech was very good for not even being two, from what he could tell. Sure, every once and awhile there was a word they inquired about, but they seemed to easily understand the explanations given to them, and quickly started using each new word they learned. _Correctly_. With the exception of Uncomfortable, Makiko claiming childishly that Icky was the better word. Although, he had heard Masato mutter a garbled version of uncomfortable _in his sleep_.

Most of it he supposed he could put down to the way they were raised. They probably would be highly inquisitive, endless bundles of energy if they'd had grown up in a more friendly environment (they sort of reminded him of a far more subdued Nawaki at that age). He wasn't so sure about the level of intelligence they showed however, or the extent of their vocabulary. They didn't ask questions often. While on the run with their mother, how often would the pair have dared to ask her what a word meant? Likely a large portion of what they knew was learned from strictly observation.

That did not explain how they already knew how to mold chakra, and had control over it that was better than academy students who were _three times_ their age. Certainly, the control could partially be explained away by what was likely a desperate need to get into hiding; which neither completely covered it, and brought up other questions.

In order for that to be the case, Jiraiya figured they would have already needed to have some basic training with chakra and control of it, at least. Something along the lines of academy students sticking a leaf to their foreheads, _at the very least_. Then there was the foresight they would have needed to know that hiding down by the river was too risky, and they needed a spot their pursuers would likely never think two toddlers could get to.

It was for that reason, while he was feeding the boy the last spoon-full, and he knew that the other two Genin were still off taking care of the tasks he'd given them (Inoru was to refill their water, and Kenta was to gather more of the berries and herbs they were using to feed the brats), he asked the question.

"Masato-kun… can you tell me why you and Makiko-chan climbed up the big stone man?" Okay, asking it like that felt… weird. But he had to remember these were toddlers he was talking to, so he needed to use smaller words. Trying to explain who Madara was to a toddler… or what a statue, or monument was… well. He didn't have that kind of patients (nor was a tale of Madara Uchiha at all appropriate for toddlers.)

Minato's eyes snapped up to his own, and he met them for a moment, before turning his gaze back to the child in his lap, who finally swallowed the mush in his mouth, a frown on his little brow. "Ka-san said," was the boy's response.

"She didn't know where you two were," Jiraiya immediately responded, because this sounded like an avoidance of the question to him.

"Not say to hide there," the slightly higher voice of Makiko cut in, while the boy's brow furrowed further. He kept his gaze on the boy rather than looking at the younger twin for the answer. He'd asked Masato.

"No," the small blonde boy said eventually. "Not say where hide," he made the admittance, brow still furrowed. "Not _then_."

Not then.

"When?" The white haired man inquired.

Masato met his gaze unwaveringly, and announced "Ka-san say lots." He almost seemed to be glaring at him now, finishing his answer in a tone that said he thought it was obvious. " Hide up. As up as can."

He considered this answer for a moment. It did make some sense. Telling the two to hide as high as they can over and over again so that it sank in would make the two seek out the highest ground. Where they were least expected to be. That would take the foresight out of the equation, wouldn't it?

But then, why hadn't they simply climbed a tree?

* * *

Makiko had nearly started holding her breath when Jiraiya had asked _that_ question. She knew someone was bound to ask it eventually, but she had been hoping it wouldn't be so soon. So of course the White haired man had sprung it on them. She had stilled immediately in Minato's lap (only remembering to swallow what was in her mouth when she felt him tense), concerned on how Masato would respond.

If this had been her back in the days of, say, a genin Naruko, she would have cursed at his answer (if she'd made the connection that it was _bad_ ). She was barely able to stop herself from blurting out something as it was. And then Jiraiya had called Masato out on it, and she did blurt out something. She had barely managed to edit her words to something that hopefully was more appropriate to her apparent age.

Her heart had beat wildly in her chest following this. Jiraiya hadn't even looked at her, keeping his eyes on Masato and waiting for him to say something. And he did, though at first it got him nowhere. He was fumbling trying to play along with what she'd said.

But he'd got it in the end, and she allowed herself to relax. Jiraiya seemed… satisfied, but still slightly suspicious of them. However he didn't ask anything else of her twin.

"Minato," he called instead to her older brother. "Hurry up and wash up. I'd like to leave again as soon as you're teammates get back."

She pushed lightly on her brother's arm, expecting him to let her crawl off his lap, but found he did not budge. She looked up at him curiously, spying a frown on his face before the expression became neutral as he regarded the toad sennin. Finally he let her go, and she immediately toddled over towards Jiraiya, hands reaching out towards Masato.

Masato in turn squirmed in jiraiya's lap, the man allowing him to slip away immediately. She found her hand held by one of his, and the two of the promptly sat down in the grass where they were.

She heard the light clacking of the stone implements, and then Minato's presence was gone as he went to do as instructed. Well, if she stretched out her senses, she was fairly certain she would be able to tell what direction he was in… but she was reluctant to do so after what had just occurred. What she needed to be doing was trying to make her and Masato seem more like toddlers.

There was a little ant hill over there.

She tugged on Masato's hand. "Masa-nii, Masa-nii!" she said in what she hoped was quiet, barely contained excitement, her free hand stretched out, pointing towards the insect mount.

Masato's eyes easily found it, and without missing a beat he was pulling her back to her feet and toddling towards it with a "Close Look!" He had a wide, childish grin on his face, and as he tugged her along behind him, he stooped down to grab a stick, which he promptly started using to block the path of various ants.

She giggled at his antics, and even as she came aware of the the perplexed look Jiraiya was now giving them (before his expression was masked of course) she couldn't help but to keep giggling.

It felt like it had been so long since she'd been able to laugh like this. It had been years in fact. Sure, while they weren't quite in control of themselves, their little toddler shells had laughed and had fun. However, for her it had been years ago that she'd last laughed so easily. Even the last few years of her… of Naruko's life… Well, as the world of peace she'd worked so hard to built had started to crumble, how could she possibly truly _laugh_?

And this one… they'd been on the run. They'd had to watch and listen to the terrible way these little toddler bodies had to live. With the mandate given to them by the Otsutsuki brother's constantly on their mind, along with the constant worry of the world some how trying to 'toss them out'. Their new life had been anything but fun for the reborn pair.

They'd just lost their mother not even two full days ago.

Her giggling was mangled by the sob that pushed past her lips, immediately drawing the attention of Masato, and the white haired Jounin. Masato froze, stick inches above the Anthill. "Maki?"

Her shoulders started to shake, as her little frame was wracked with more sobbing. Just yesterday they'd had a water fight, and laughed so carefree… and now today the silly scene of Masato playing with ants, and she genuinely found it a little fun (the toddler shell was seriously affecting her emotions).

But Haruka had _sacrificed_ herself for them. And if she… if Naruko and Naruto hadn't have come to this world… been born into the bodies of Haruka's children, the woman might still be alive right now. Or maybe all three of them would be dead. But the woman had sacrificed herself for the twins she thought of as her children…. and they _werent_ , where they? Hadn't she and Naruto stolen the bodies… the future of the twins?

She tried to pull her hand out of his as she let her knees give out, tears streaking down her cheeks as she continued to sob. Masato… Naruto was saying the name of her shell more insistently, clearly alarmed, as he knelt in front of her. But she couldn't even see him anymore. Nor did she hear the approach of Jiraiya.

"Wha-… -ong…. -ko-chan?" his voice met her ears, sounding terribly far away. But she didn't need to hear it properly to know what he had said.

What's wrong, Makiko-chan.

But it was the wrong name! She' had stolen Makiko's future! She was Naruko… someone who should be here!

 _What's wrong, Naruko-chan?_

Her shoulder's jerked, as her mind supplied the question with her original name… but the voice was not Jiraiya's.

It was _Naruto's_.

* * *

 ** _Word Count:_** _5630_

* * *

 **To the Reviewers:**

 _KaixDecayx_ _:_ I absolutely had to. I mean, they are just so cute~

 _Skylark Sky_ : That makes sense… I just never thought of that, since you can't exactly 'stretch' your heart or work it directly I guess. Cardio makes sense.  
I adore MinaKushi myself so I just had to do that. And a little more this chapter too~

 _animecutylover_ _:_ Thanks for taking the time to submit so many reviews ~3 Honestly I did play around a bit with different ideas of when to have this story take place, and Something in Madara and Hashirama's time was one of them… but I ultimately decided this flowed better with the set up.  
And yes, being the younger twin siblings of Minato is going to be awkard ;)

 ** _Thanks for the reviews~_**


	9. Ch: VII: Arrival

**A/N:** Hello readers~

Sorry this is a day late. A family matter came up and I was without internet while I was attending to it. But here is the chapter I promised, and the next one will still be on Tuesday despite this delay

Hope you all enjoy~

* * *

 _Chapter VII_ _: **Arrival**_

* * *

When Makiko had started giggling at her twin's antics, it seemed… off. Or, rather, Jiraiya had a feeling that she wasn't laughing so much at Masato playing with ants, as something else. There was a hidden truth behind the childish mirth. Something that the girl was trying to hide, perhaps?

He'd watched the pair carefully as they 'played', but he still wasn't quite prepared for the sudden breakdown of the girl. Her giggling that had filled the air moments before morphed into sobs and tears seemingly out of the blue.

Masato couldn't get her to respond to his words. She didn't even seem to realize he had dropped his stick, now standing next to her with one hand in his as he kept trying to get her attention. He tried asking her what was wrong twice, with no response either.

The question was barely passed his lips a third time when she suddenly fell silent. Blank eyes stared right ahead of her, no sign of her distress in that moment aside from the tear stains on her cheeks. And then, just as suddenly, she simply collapsed. The toad sage moved on pure instinct, catching her small frame before she could hit the dirt.

And then he nearly dropped her.

She was burning up. No… not simply burning up. When the pair had been feverish before, that was burning up. Skin hot and clammy to the touch. But _this_? Her skin was hot enough that contact caused significant discomfort (for a brief moment he thought he'd actually been burned).

"Sensei!" Minato's voice reached his ears, and he could hear the boy hurrying over. "What happened?"

It occured to him then that Minato had likely returned in time to see his little sister collapse. Raising his eyes from the very sick child, he sought out the other two Genin. Both were standing nearby, but with confused and concerned expressions.

The man realized he was frowning.

While he schooled his features, the jounin sat himself down cross-legged, laying the girl in his lap. Quickly he pulled out the medication that Tsunade had given him in the case of a severe fever (this seemed more than simply _severe_ to him). "Inoru, Water." The Genin responded immediately, handing him one of the filled bamboo containers. "Minato, support her head," and the boy was there instantly, supporting his sister into a slightly raised position so Jiraiya could make use of both his hands. He unfolded one of the packets of powdered medicine, and opened the girls mouth as gently as he could. The future Sannin carefully shook a quarter of the powder into her open mouth, and then followed it with some water.

She swallowed.

 _That_ was certainly an intense relief. One that they didn't have the time to really appreciate. "Take your brother," He spoke lowly, as he quickly put away the medicine and canteen. "We won't be stopping tonight."

None of the genin said anything. Masato was quickly on Minato's back, Kenta taking his pack for him. Before Inoru could take his own, Jiraiya pulled out his Konoha issued cloak, turning it into a sort of sling to hold the girl to his back. The girl wouldn't be able to hold on in her currently state, and speed was of the essence.

Tree branches shuddered and groaned in their wake.

* * *

Masato kept trying to look over his brother's shoulder at the fragile form strapped to Jiraiya's back. Minato gave one of his legs a squeeze each time. But _damn_ that last one had really hurt. So he had to give up trying to see how Makiko was doing, because clearly Minato didn't have the patience to deal with a toddler squirming on his back.

They didn't have the time either.

Given that Jiraiya had adminstered some sort of medicine to his little sister, Masato knew she was sick. A fever… _that_ one again, he feared. Or worse. So he'd tried to fall into that place of light and dark, where the pain was _monumental_ to try and find her… but he couldn't do it. Twice now.

He'd even fallen asleep on Minato's back!

The moon was high in the sky, and the night almost silent aside from the regular sounds of nocturnal life. They'd only stopped once since the, that he knew of, long enough for him to be fed and for more medicine to be given to his sister.

Jiraiya's carefully maintained mask of neutrality at the time told him she hadn't improved.

Three times now Kenta had come up beside Minato and popped a soldier pill into the other boy's mouth. Masato had even spied Jiraiya eating one when he was still trying to look over Minato's shoulder. Masato had thought the Jounin was being hard on his genin before, but clearly he had been wrong. Or maybe it was because they were all younger than he had been when he'd become a Genin, yet were being made to travel at a harder pace. Perhaps the pace that Jiraiya had set before wasn't _that_ much above normal for the squad. Why else would the be able to push on like this, carefully timing when they took their soldier pills so they could get through the entire night, when the last time any of them had slept had likely been in the wee hours of that morning?

And all he could do right now was make sure he was holding onto his brother properly, and try not to fall asleep constantly. He wasn't doing as well as he'd like with the later, as once again he felt his eyelids drooping. He was so tired. But he didn't want to be sleeping. He couldn't get them to Konoha any quicker, but he was never one to just do nothing when there was something he could be doing. Even if it might not make much of a difference, or not be connected in the end at all.

He _had_ to get back to that place. Had to see if Makiko was there again. Because if that was what he thought it was, and she _was_ there, then…

Masato tried to reason with himself, to allow himself more rest and ease his nerves. Why would she have gone back there? They'd both pulled out. But he knew… that was not a place either of them could escape so easily in this life. They were warned about it; it wasn't a place at all, but a boundary really. Between this world and a void in between worlds. It was this world trying to throw out their souls that it recognized as not belonging.

Maybe.

At least, he couldn't think of what else it could have been.

His sleep deprived mind ran through question after question. Why would she have been there so soon after the last time, when he himself was fine? Why had she so suddenly come down with a fever? Why had she started sobbing out of the blue? Why hadn't she responded to anything that was said to her?

Why had he heard _that_ just before she'd collapsed?

His former name.

Oh, he hadn't heard it out loud. No, this was like a whisper directly into his mind. A forlorn, broken whisper. Had it really sounded sort of like Naruko, or was that just his mind playing tricks on him? Was it anything at all aside from that? Was there any way to know?

He was just so _tired._ He had been for a long time. Not just in this new life. For years as Naruto, the Seventh Hokage, he'd just felt tired. Well… not simply tired, like the endless mountains of paperwork would leave any man (or woman). He was emotionally tired, watching the hair-line cracks in the peaceful world he and his companions had worked so hard to build, spread. Fracture. Finally begin to tear everything apart.

We'll get through it, he had told others. Him and his allies would conquer it, and leave the future bright. And then it was those a little younger, like Konohamuru whom he'd rested his hopes on. Then it was the new generation. The Children of those who'd fought in the war.

Not that he doubted they wouldn't find a way to succeed now. Never. He had utmost faith that those he'd left behind in his old world would fight, survive, and eventually win back peace. But he was never going to see it.

Peace for him had been too short lived. Sure, his generation had experienced more years of peace than any shinobi before that… but it was still too short. Especially now that he knew what time he was in, more or less. He had years of war to look forward to.

And it wasn't a war like he'd fought before. These weren't Dead shinobi, and Zetsu soldiers that were fighting against the shinobi. This was shinobi against shinobi. Living against Living. Kill or be Killed.

The prospect of it made him momentarily wonder what the hell he'd been thinking when he'd agreed to this. But it was only for a second. He'd agreed because that was who he was. Now he was committed to it, and he was going to see it through to the end.

Hopefully not alone.

Leaning his forehead against his brother's back, and allowing his eyes to close, Masato tried to fall into that place again. He knew it was useless though. It wasn't likely a place he could get to because he wanted to. His body immediately took over anyway, knowing what it needed. He could feel himself drifting off to sleep not even a minute after he'd closed his eyes. He tried fighting it off at first.

And then came an idea. One he probably wouldn't have had if he wasn't so that, Masato gave up trying to keep himself awake, and instead tried to pull himself inward. To take a trip into his own mind. He doubted it would be like he remembered it, but at the same time somehow felt it couldn't be _that_ different either. After all, new body or not, he was still himself wasn't he? The mindscape was a reflection of one's innermost workings… of their soul, or something like that, right?

* * *

His legs and lungs burned from exertion, but still Minato kept pace. His track-suit jacket felt soaked through with sweat, but he didn't care. The boy on his back felt like he weighed a ton rather than next to nothing. That wasn't going to stop him. None of it was.

The sky was slowly being painted with pinks and oranges, but that wasn't going to stop him either. Kenta and Inoru looked like they were nearly ready to collapse… as long as they didn't, he would keep going. If they did collapse he might still keep going… or at least curse them for collapsing when they were _so close_.

He could _see_ the gates ahead of them.

But they were also now surrounded.

The sudden realization caused the boy to misstep, but before he could fall there was a hand on his shoulder, and he found himself staring at a masked face.

Anbu.

 _Why?_

Everyone came to a stop. Right there, only a few yards away from Konoha.

There were two more Anbu present (that he could _see_ ), one already speaking to Jiraiya in hushed tones. Whatever words the two shared were brief, as the operative's hands soon blured through a series of motions, and then the third Anbu was gone.

"Go home Kenta, Inoru," Jiraiya spoke up, his gazed unmistakably fixed on on Kenta and Inoru. Minato met the man's eyes moment's later, before the man turned back ahead without another word. When the jounin resumed the sprint, Minato was right behind him again. They passed through the gates, Inoru and Kenta heading to the check in to speak to the Chunin on duty. However, with an escort of anbu, Jiraiya and himself kept going. They were soon on the rooftops, moving with all haste towards the hospital.

He tried not to think about the fact that they had an anbu escort, concentrating on following after his sensei and keeping himself from collapsing from exhaustion. He was so concentrated on it that it took him a moment to realized that they'd just entered the hospital _through a window_.

And there was the Hokage.

* * *

Eyes locked with his former teacher, Jiraiya handed Makiko off to one of the Med-nin in the room. Another took Masato from Minato (though he was sure the later was reluctant to let his brother go). The window was already closed, and the Anbu had melted into the shadows. The two toddlers were taken into an adjoining room, the med-nin speaking quickly to eachother.

Minato made to follow, so the man placed his hand on the boy's shoulder to stop him.

"The body?" Was the Hokage's first words. Jiraiya wasn't surprised, scroll already in hand. He held it out towards Hiruzen, though he knew the man was not the one who was going to take it.

"Gacho," the Sarutobi called softly, and one of the Anbu from before remerged. The one who'd right Masato. He was an average built man, with rather non-descript brown hair. If it wasn't for the design of his mask, there would be nothing that stood out about the man's appearance. Which was only a good thing for his job of course.

Jiraiya placed the scroll into the Anbu's hand, and didn't even blink when said shinobi was gone without a trace, his hand still outstretched.

"So, care to tell me how you happened upon a missing nin and her toddlers while on border patrol?" The question would have given the impression of a coming punishment if it was not for the slight twitch to the corner of Hiruzen's mouth. His brows were furrowed however, telling Jiraiya that the Hokage had already encountered some sort of challenge brought on by his messenger toad. A headache inducing one. Which could only mean that somehow or another the council was already aware to some extent.

Homura and Koharu he didn't mind. They were easily handled. Danzo however… well, the new head of the Shimura clan was not at all an easy man to deal with. Hiruzen trusted all three of them, he knew, that was why they'd been appointed to the council when he'd created it six years after becoming Hokage. Really it had just been him giving titles to the three whom he'd been relying on to help him govern the village right from the beginning of his time in office.

That did not mean that the man always agreed with them, or they with him.

"We spotted smoke on patrol," the white haired man began simply. "Investigating that brought us to the Valley of the end, where we witnessed the deceased limp over the border and collapse on the bank." He kept his tone even as he went over the series of events that followed, sparing Minato an occasional glance to see how the boy was fairing.

He looked about ready to pass out, but was determinedly keeping himself on his feet. The Hokage certainly must have noticed, but as he did dismiss the boy, Jiriaya hoped Minato had it in him to remain conscious and present until this impromptu debriefing came to a close.

He moved on to the discovery of the twins on the shoulder of the famous Uchiha ancestor, and explaining how they had climbed the stone figure, as well as their reason for doing so as stated by Masato. Hiruzen's frown deepened. As Minato was present, the toad sage decided not to share all of his observations with the Hokage yet, which he was sure the man knew. Minato was tired, and the last thing that he needed to be doing as the boy's sensei was making him think they were suspecting his siblings as spies… even if that was still a distinct possibility.

"Minato Namikaze," the Hokage finally adressed the boy after the white haired shinobi finished explaining the strange behaviour Makiko had exhibited before her collapse. The genin stood straighter. "I would advise you learn to better control your emotions while on missions. You were given instructions not to cross the border but disobeyed that in the heat of the moment. It could have gotten you killed."

Minato grit his teeth, but bowed his head to the admonishment. "Yes, Sandaime-sama." The boy knew the words were correct. Not that that was stopping him from feeling frustrated and just plain upset with _it if his shaking fists at his side were any indication._

Sarutobi regarded the bowing boy for nearly a minute, before he nodded back to him. "Head on into the next room and try to get some rest."

Minato's head snapped back up in mild surprise, eyes flickering between the Hokage and himself. It seemed to him for a moment that the boy might actually refuse, but then his shoulders slumped and he nodded sluggishly. "Yessir," he breathed out, before walked with slow, measured steps out of the room. Jiraiya was impressed he didn't stumble to be honest.

Silence stretched between the two men following the genin's departure. They regarded eachother for several quiet minutes before the Hokage let out a tired sigh, and lowered himself into a chair in the small room. "So, what are you not telling me about these twins?"

Right to the point, of course.

* * *

Squinting his eyes against the bright light in this room, in contrast to the dark of the one he'd just left, Minato tried to take in the details. It appeared as a rather typical Hospital room, honestly, aside from the fact that it had what he thought might be an office space next to it, with an adjoining door. There were three beds in the room, with a curtains that could be pulled shut around each bed for privacy. Currently, however, they were open.

The bed in the middle of the room had Masato tucked into it, the boy sleeping soundly. The one farthers from the window had a pair of Med-nin next to it, who were speaking lowly to each other as they fussed over the feverish Makiko. He wanted to ask them how his sister was doing, but couldn't make his mouth move to do so. Even if he could, it was probably for the best he didn't, so as not to distract them.

So instead his gaze moved back to the door behind him, and he strained his ears to see if he could hear anything. Not a sound from the other side. He tried pressing his ear against the wood of the door.

Still nothing.

Biting back a sigh, the blonde boy moved to the bed by the window, removing his sandals and stripping his jacket off, placing the first neatly under the chair next to the bed, and the later over the back of it. Debating for a moment whether or not to take off his pants (leaving him only in his boxers), or to leave them on to sleep, the boy looked over at the pair of med-nin. Both were women… but he was so tired of the dirty pants.

Finally he decided it was better to just take them off, so they joined his jacket over the back of the chair. One of the women looked up over at him, but she only gave him a brief smile, before going back to whatever it was she was doing.

Part of him wanted to try and stay awake until they were done. Just so he would be sure that Makiko was okay. But he knew that today there was going to be an actual debriefing. People were going to ask him questions. Maybe even suspect the twins or himself. And if they didn't, there was going to be plenty that had to be discussed regarding where the twins were going to be situated… how they were going to be cared for.

And by who.

The idea that the village might try and put his siblings into the orphanage or foster care made him sick to his stomach. They weren't without family. They had him. And even though he knew it was going to be hard, he was going to be responsible for them!

He was going to need some help though.

It was with these thoughts passing through his mind that he tiredly pulled himself into the hospital bed. His head sunk into the seemingly cloud soft pillow, and that was that.

* * *

Jiraiya always managed to give him the worst headaches. He was one of his finest Jounin, but trouble seemed to gravitate towards the man on a near constant basis. Perhaps that was part of why the once fool of his team had turned out to be such an outstanding shinobi. That, and no small measure of luck. One would have to be blessed with good luck in order to get himself back out of the messes Jiraiya so often landed himself into.

But this?

It was difficult not to sigh as he considered the information he'd been told by his former student. Instead he lit his pipe as soon as he was outside the Hospital, and smoked pensively as he walked through the streets of Konoha toward the Hokage tower. He did not look forward to trying to muddle through this with his advisory council. Certainly, when he'd established it he'd made it clear he was still the Hokage and thus he held the true power in the end… yet the trio loved to push his buttons.

It had saved many a shinobi life through the years… and damned nearly as many.

Still, when it came down to it, his word was the law of Konoha. Not any of theirs.

That wouldn't stop Homura and Koharu from labeling the toddler siblings of Minato as suspicious. They'd have to be 'vetted' to make sure they were spies, the pair would insist. That was fair enough. He just had to make sure it was done in such a way that it caused the twins minimal distress. They were just toddlers… practically still _babies_. Only three months apart in age form his daughter. He would not condone placing them in the care of T&I, no matter how adamant his former teammates were on the matter.

So then, with whom did he entrust the task of vetting the pair?

Not Danzo. The man was necessary. What he did was important for the village. The branch of Anbu he was creating was _fundamental_ to their survival, _especially_ if they went to war. Konoha needed Shimura Danzo and the Root; the foundation provided for the village's growth.

Konoha also didn't need to _know_ about it. Root was best left in shadows.

Minato Namikaze would not be quiet should his siblings be taken into the program and disappear from his sight. Certainly it could all be arranged so the boy never knew.. never suspected. But any way that was done would likely leave an emotional scare on one of their most promising Genin. While Shinobi life in general would do that to the boy eventually, now, while he was young, it was important to instill a trust and belief in his village. A sense of pride, and a need to protect. These were things necessary to turn a genin into a soldier for the benefit of the village. Emotional scares needed to come from the _enemy._ Genuinely, or perceived.

Around him Konoha began to wake, as it's Hokage started to climb the steps spiraling upward to his destination.

On the other hand, these two _exceedingly_ prodigal namikaze's could be conditioned into superb tools under Danzo.

Or be raised into outstanding shinobi by the village. Emotions still in their somewhere, rather than killed off by root. Was it worth it to risk driving a promising shinobi onto an undesirable path in order to make the pair into tools for the sake of the village? No, that wasn't the real question. Either path had acceptable benefits and downfalls if handled properly.

The real question, or rather, questions was whether he was willing to subject toddlers around the age of his daughter… younger than his oldest son, to the harsh life that would await them in Danzo's grasp. And if it was worth antagonizing Danzo, Homura and Koharu to give the pair a chance to grow up _normally_.

Now that was quite the question, wasn't it?

* * *

He felt almost like he was floating, the surface under him felt so soft. It took his sleep fogged mind a moment to really understand that he was in a bed. An actual _bed_. The first in his new life. Even when they'd been given shelter by strangers, they were lucky to have futon to sleep on. More often than not it was a rug with a thin blanket for the three of them.

Where the hell was he?!

He sat up quickly, small hand throwing off the blanket before his eyes really registered the room around him. A bed on either side. A door across the room, another one past the bed on the left, and a window to the right. An IV was next to the bed on the left, soft dripping accompanying the slightly irregular breathing of the individual there. A small body, tucked up carefully in the hospital bedding.

Makiko.

His feet met the cold tiled floor, so cold that it would have stung if his feet hadn't been bandaged. As it was he still grimaced at the unpleasant chill. Not that that stopped him from padding around his bed and over to the one Makiko was laying in. His hand dove under the blanket for the arm that didn't have an IV stuck in it. Finding her hand he gave it a squeeze. Unsurprisingly she gave no sort of response.

Like she hadn't given any when he'd found her sitting inside his... their mindscape. He'd been slightly surprised to find them still merged... and void of anything but grey sky, and ink black water. No matter what he'd done she had not responded to him though. Simply sat there, staring ahead of her. What did that mean?

He stood there for a few minutes, holding her hand, before he righted the blankets the best he could. For a moment longer the young Namikaze watched the uneven rise and fall of his sister's chest, reassuring himself that she was alive. That she wasn't going to just stop breathing.

Then he turned, eyes moving to the bed on the other end of the room. Laying on his side, only half under the blanket, was his older hadn't some how been injured had he? Nibbling on his bottom lip, Masato toddled across the room up to the bed. He wouldn't be able to get at Minato's hands from his postion though, as the genin was in the middle of the bed. So he grasped at the mattress and tried pulling himself up.

His hands slipped and he fell onto his ass, barely able to keep from crying out from the pain in his rump.

Pursing his lips, he used the side of the bed to pull himself back onto his feet, and then reached as far as he could to try again. As he was trying to yank himself onto the bed, he felt two hands on his arms, and suddenly there he was. Sitting on the bed with a sleepy-eyed Minato regarding him. Masato couldn't see any signs of pain in the other blonde's face, but that didn't mean he wasn't injured.

"Whassrong?" Minato slurred, clearly not fully awake, and yet he must have noticed something in Masato's expression to ask. Had he been frowning? How did he answer that?

"Uh…" yeah, real smart. That would get him so _far_. "Where?"

Minato blinked, and then yawned, before he lifted up the blanket, and patted the bed beside him. Masato took the chance to look over his brother for any sign of injury. He was stripped down to a mesh top and his boxers, but he couldn't see any bandaging or any sign of blood. "We're in Konoha…. Home is here," Minato answered with another yawn.

Masato slid under the blanket next to the other blonde, relieved at the revelation the other wasn't hurt, as well how he'd managed to escape suspicion just then. "Is this home?"

Minato chuckled softly and shook his head as he tucked the blanket around him. "No, this is a Hospital. It's where people get better from boo-boos and sick."

Boo-boos? Wow. That was not a word he'd ever expected to hear out of the mouth of a Shinobi. Especially one who would eventually become Hokage (yet he'd said it himself many times when his children had been as young as he was now). "Makiko?"

The tender (but tired) smile that had been in place on Minato's face faltered for a moment, then turned forced as he kept it there for the sake of his little brother. He didn't know that Masato was observant enough to have caught the concern that had been there for a second after all. Or that he knew the difference between a real smile and a forced one. "She'll get better soon. Their are people here who will help her."

The words and actions told him two things. Minato had not heard any sort of diagnosis on Makiko, and that Minato himself had no theory of his own on what was wrong with the girl. He responded with a simple nod.

"Alright Masato… get some more sleep, okay?" Another yawn followed this request from the genin. Minato was tired. It was daylight outside the window, but judging from the exhaustion in Minato's words and the yawning, it had only been a few hours since they'd arrived in Konoha. Had there been a mission debriefing yet?

"G'night," he murmured, and cuddled up to the boy, closing his eyes to feign sleep. In order to make it convincing he evened his breathing, all while listening to the sounds in the room. Beyond the room.

The hospital din could be heard outside the door. Soft conversations between Medics. Soothing words spoken to patients. But in front of him, the even breathing of Minato was calming. The sound of Makiko's breath reassuring. The soft bed under him a luxury.

It didn't take long for his act to become the real thing.

* * *

When next Minato woke it was to the sound of a door sliding open. His eyes snapped open, seeking out the individual who had entered the room. His blue eyes landed on Jiraiya, and his shoulder's relaxed, a breath rushing out of him that he hadn't realized he was holding. The man's gaze moved from his to the small form of Masato who was curled into his chest.

"Go home and get cleaned up kid," Jiraiya instructed, his voice holding a hint of a bit back sigh. "Then get yourself up to the Hokage tower."

The tower…. in other words, leave his siblings behind here in the hospital and get himself presentable for seeing the Hokage. Without thought, he opened his mouth to protest.

"The twins will be fine," Jiraiya cut off the attempt, low voice now stern. "Get going, Namikaze."

His mouth snapped shut, and he glared at the man for a moment, before he carefully settled his brother away from him. "Yes sensei," he bit out, his bitterness clear in the words. Quickly he redressed himself, and then followed his sensei out when the man turned and slipped back into the hallway. He jammed his hands into the pockets of his jacket, and stubbornly kept his eyes locked onto the jounin's back, rather than letting them fall to the floor like they wanted to do.

Unsurprisingly as soon as they left the hospital the white haired man was gone, leaving the boy to his own thoughts as he took measured steps away from the building. He was half tempted to just go back and stay with the twins… but he knew better than to give in to the childish desire. The Hokage was expecting him, and you did not blow off the man if you were a Konoha Shinobi. Not if you didn't want Anbu detaining you or something.

Still, he moved unhurriedly through the streets towards his house. The same house he'd grown up in, as when his mother defected it was decided all the Namikaze funds, as well as the home would be granted to Minato. Well, in those first few years he didn't have any control of it himself, as the village took care of everything. He'd been considering selling it recently however, since he didn't need so much space and now that he was a Genin he finally had full control of the 'estate', since a Shinobi was considered an adult in legal terms. Plus he had his own income now, so it would be a simple matter to rent something much smaller for himself.

But now he had two siblings, and something smaller was not an option.

He stared up at the front door of his house, expression pensive. Was the home big enough? It only had two bedrooms… but the twins were still young enough to share a room weren't they? When they got older, that would be a bit of a problem, as he was sure Makiko, being a girl, would want her own private space away from her brothers.

He really didn't need to be worrying about that right now though. It was years away.

The boy pulled himself up the steps to his front door, digging out his keys to unlock it and enter. His lips twitched with the want to say 'I'm back,' but for once he bit the words back. No one was going to answer him, but he'd been saying it anyways. At first in a childish hope that one day someone would, and then out of force of habit.

But now he really did have a family, and saying the words when he knew they weren't there to respond seemed strange. It was no longer a hope, and it was a habit he didn't want to give into and then feel silly about it afterwards. Instead he closed the door behind him, and carelessly kicked off his shoes (normally he would sit down and take them off properly, setting them neatly next to eachother). He stepped up into the Hallway, and made his way quickly to his bedroom, stripping off his dirty clothes as he went (usually he would wait until he was in his room and toss the garments into the hamper), leaving a trail of clothing behind him. He didn't bother closing his bedroom door as his only goal in the room was to grab a clean set of clothing, before he made his way to the bathroom.

His body was stiff and ached a bit with the abuse it had gone through, and he very much wanted to have a bath. There wasn't time for that however, so he had to make do with a hot shower. As quickly as he could, Minat scrubbed the grime from his body and hair before he turned off the water and dried himself off. His hair was still a bit damp, but now that he was here in the home he just felt a sense of urgency. He had to get to the Hokage tower quickly. The sooner he did, the sooner he could go back to the hospital.

He practically threw the bathroom door back open once he was dressed in another tracksuit (this one with a blue stripe instead of the usual red one). The blonde's feet quickly carried him back down the hall to the door, where he stooped down to pick up his discarded shoes (if he'd taken them off properly this would have gone marginally quicker), and tugged them onto his feet.

Minato was out the door again barely five minutes after he'd entered it, closing it behind him (but neglecting to lock it again) before he leapt onto the rooftops and made his way towards the Hokage tower.

* * *

After Minato left, Masato cracked his eyes open, still keeping his breathing steady to appear as if he was sleeping. But he saw no one, and heard nothing aside from the drip of the IV and his sister's breathing. Still he didn't move for nearly a half hour. Then he finally climbed back out of the bed and padded across the room to Makiko's bed.

He stared at the pale faced girl who lay there for a moment, before he resolutely tugged himself up onto the bed (it took him three tries) next to her. Since his hand's were both bandaged, he leaned down to touch his forehead lightly against hers.

No fever.

He'd known that already though, as her breathing had steadied nearly an hour ago now. However, he couldn't stop the relieved sigh that passed his lips now that he had more physical proof of her wellbeing.

But then, why hadn't she woken up yet?

It could just be because she was so tired, he supposed… but what if that wasn't it? What if there was something else wrong with her? What if it was something that the Med-nin here couldn't pick up on? Or something they couldn't do anything about?

Plagued with worry, the child-man laid himself beside her, on top of the blanket. Gently he reached out with a white covered hand, lightly stroking her cheek. "Wake up, Maikiko," he murmured softly.

 _I don't want to do this by myself_ , he added in the silence of his own thoughts. The idea of Naruko being tossed out and him being left here was troubling. Not so much because he felt incapable. More because he was her brother. Had been even before they were actually related by blood. The way she'd suddenly broken down made him wonder if it was because of some emotional turmoil she was going through that concerned them being here at all. If he couldn't help her out if it… couldn't get her to believe in herself and their reason for being here, he'd take it as a personal failure.

But if that was what she really wanted…?

No.

He refused to believe that for even a moment. Why the hell would she have agreed to come at all if that was the case? Naruko and he were so alike, and he knew she was not one to give up. He wouldn't give up.

"Wake up," he repeated again, inwardly wincing at the desperate edge to his young voice. The girl shifted slightly, eyelids twitching with the motion of her eyes underneath. "Thats it," the words slipped past his lips unbidden.

The door to the room creaked open.

* * *

 ** _Word Count:_** _6522_

* * *

 **To the Reviewers:**

 _Latinagirl-reader2010 :_ Glad you're enjoying the fic, and that you love how the relationships are developing so far~

 _PriceTage :_ Flattered to hear its becoming one of your favourites~

Yes, I do mean to keep going past them being toddlers, but likely in a sequel fic.

 _Skylark Sky :_ That makes total sense

Minato is totally adorable yup. I'm really enjoying writing interactions for them that comes before they got together~

 _EclipseNightClub :_ Thank you! Glad you enjoy the fic~

 ** _Thanks for the reviews~_**


	10. Ch VIII: Bizarre

**A/N:** Hello readers~

Sorry that this is later in the day then I have been posting chapters lately. I was traveling up to work today and slept in, so didn't have the time to post before I left. I won't be posting a chapter for this on Thursday this time. For those of you who follow **_ID_** I'm sorry to say there will most likely not be a chapter there this Thursday either, since I am up at work. However, I will see what I can do with that one, and maybe will do a simultaneous release of an **_ID_** and an **_Ex_** chapter next Tuesday instead.

Hope you all enjoy~

* * *

 _Chapter VIII_ _:_ **Bizarre**

* * *

This was just strange. Weird. _Bizarre._

When he'd heard the door _creaking_ he knew it couldn't be the main entrance to the room as that was a sliding door. So his eyes had immediately snapped towards the room across from the bed he'd woken up in. He thought perhaps he'd be face to face with some Anbu (from root, worst case scenario), or perhaps the Hokage?

But _Uchinha?_

Three of them. All teens, with a blue-green shuriken shape around their clan crest on their arms. What was that supposed to signify he wondered? And why were they there? Neither said anything to him, even though both looked him over with their onyx eyes upon entering. Then one went to stand by the window, one by the main door to the room, while the third stayed where he was. Their expressions all remained stern, two of the teenage boys crossing their arms, the third (by the window) shoving his hands into his pockets.

Where they here to make sure he and Makiko didn't escape or something? Or to protect them from getting snatched? Or for their own personal agenda?

Were their more of them in the adjoined room?

For a moment he debated the pro's and con's of trying to sense if there was anyone in the other room, but ultimately he decided against it. It wasn't worth the risk. Instead he'd asked in a small voice "Who?" to see if they would respond.

They didn't.

The once man bit his lower lip, turning his eyes back to his sister. Masato found himself staring into void, grey-blue eyes, much like they had been in their mindscape. "Makiko?" He called to her softly, but she made no reaction. Her blank eyes stared at nothing, her body still where it lay, the only sign of her being alive the slight rise and fall of her chest.

Seriously, what was wrong with her? It was almost like… like her body was alive, but she wasn't there anymore. But she had to be there somewhere. He refused to believe that Naruko had already been pushed out of this world.

This had something to do with her sudden breakdown. It had to. It was after she'd suddenly burst into tears that she had become unresponsive and then collapsed. Now she was… her body was awake, but Makiko was no where to be found in those dull eyes. But maybe he would have better luck in their mind-scape this time? She was no longer ill, so something had changed. Hopefully the change was enough that he could reach her.

Casting his gaze back at the Uchiha, Masato debated. Would they some how be able to tell if he was trying to enter his mind-scape?

Of course not.

After conversing with Kurama mid-fight so often in the past, he should know that.

He curled his body up closer to Makiko, as if he were afraid of the 'strangers' in the room, and then tried pulling himself inward again.

He blinked, and when his eyes opened again he found himself surrounded by nearly black sky, and ink black waters. His breath hitched at the further lack of colour in the place. Why was colour draining away from their mind-scape mash up? Why did it feel so deathly cold?

Where was Makiko?

He cast his gaze about hastily to seek her out, sending ripples over the dark surface below him as he spun about. He'd nearly turned full circle when his eyes finally found something other than dark sky and water.

"Fuck."

* * *

Fuck.

That was the first thing Minato thought when he was finally allowed to leave the Hokage's office. He had wanted to stay and give the 'adults' a piece of his mind… be a part of the conversation here after that would determine the fate of his siblings, at least in the short term. He was not at all pleased to have been dismissed… but he knew he couldn't have done anything to improve their chances. That he'd done as much as he could, not yet being eleven, and being a genin still.

He was going to have to trust that Jiraiya-sensei would manage the rest.

He didn't like it at all.

Not that he didn't trust his Sensei. Minato just didn't liek feeling useless. He never had. More so since his mother had abandoned him. It had almost gotten him denied from entering the academy… nearly had him in the same position Makiko and Masato were in now. Suspected of being a spy.

But there was a huge difference between that and this. Two in fact. Minato had been much older, and he'd received training from both of his parents when they'd been around. That made him far more likely to be a spy then the twins, even if he had been born and raised in the village, while they hadn't. The twins were under suspicion only because they were born to a defector after the event.

Which was apparently enough reason for the Hokage's advisor's to _demand_ an armed guard over the pair as if they were criminals. Danzo-sama had even gone so far as to insist on _Anbu._ Sandaime didn't agree with that at least…. but he had apparently already arranged for the police force to do the job before the topic had come up.

Minato clenched his fists at his side as he made his way down the steps from the tower. Most of the Uchiha he'd been acquainted with he neither liked or disliked… but the older members of the clan had a way of looking down on the rest of the village, and some of the younger members in the police force went a little to far in discipline from what he'd observed. Most of them had more sense that that to be sure, but that didn't get rid of their superiority complex.

It was like they thought the village owed them something simply because they were Uchiha, not because of anything each individual had down.

But it was better than anbu… and much better than the pair being hauled off somewhere and locked up.

Minato shoved his hands into his pockets, staring at the ground as he walked through Konoha back towards the Hospital. At least he was allowed to go back to their room. The Hokage had shot down his advisors suggestion that Minato Namikaze was a flight risk. He might not like how things were going at the moment, but he had to be grateful to the Sandaime for that.

* * *

 _I shouldn't even be here!_

The words had rang out in her mind before everything around her had gone black. She had no sense of time… no sensation at all actually. It was just her and her thoughts. Thoughts about how she'd stolen the future of a little girl. How could she have? She should have thought of this before she agreed to come here! She hadn't wanted to squash any chance of a life that this little girl might have had.

But she didn't want the future of her kids… her grandchildren, and all their friends to be burnt out because she refused to do something that she was given the chance to do. So where did that leave her? There was no way to do the later without doing the first, according to the Otsutsuki brothers.

Why had they chosen this girl as her vessel though? The younger sister of someone who would have otherwise been her father?

 _Would it have been okay if the vessel wasn't a namikaze?_

Her own voice. Sort of it. It was hers as she knew it now, which meant it was Makiko's. But Makiko was a toddler… she couldn't have spoken so clearly. Couldn't have known the word vessel… right?

 _Of course it wouldn't have been okay._

Again the tiny voice echoed without sound. It was right. If the vessel was some other little girl, this still wouldn't have felt right to her. She just shouldn't be here!

 _What if the vessel had no future?_

What did that mean? No future? Everyone had a future, she denied vehemently. A chance at one. If not robbed of it by death or by their body being stolen!

 _What if she already died?_

What?

No. **No.**

"NO!" her voice ripped out of her mouth, and with the word sensation returned to her. Her pant lengs felt soaked through, and around her was grey skies. Under her soaked knees was black water, and she got the impression of unfathomable depths. She stared at the glass like surface below her, but it showed her no reflection.

No. Makiko Namikaze was not dead. The _real_ one was _alive_.

 _What makes you so sure?_

Because she had to be alive! Naruko had to believe that she could give the girl back her future!

 _And throw away the future of at least two other worlds?_

Tears were streaking down her cheeks. She didn't want to condemn all those she loved… but surely Naruto could do it. Naruto would accomplish what they'd come here to do. He didn't need her help.

 _So it's okay for him to rob a child of his future?_

A strangled sob slipped past her lips. No… it wasn't okay but… but someone had to! Only one of them was better than both of them. The smallest sacrifice!

 _Neither had a future._

Ignore it, she told herself. She would release the girl. It was the right thing to do.

 _You're going back on your word._

But she had to! It was a word she shouldn't have given in the first place.

 _Don't abandon you're Nindo._

No. It wasn't hers. It was Naruto's and she'd only copied it all this time. It was okay… she could be herself in these last moments. It was the right thing to do. She had to give up and let Makiko have her life back. Naru-nii would handle everything. He always found a way.

Yes.

The voice was gone now. She was right. She knew it.

A smile slide over her lips, as she felt sensation leaving her again. But this was a little different. She was floating. Away from the child she'd nearly taken everything from. This was the right thing to do, she knew it. She could see the girl's hair below her. Looking up she could see a familair white light above her, calling to her.

There was no pain this time.

Yes, this was right.

"Naruko!"

* * *

Look down damn it! She had to look down!

 _Move, for fuck sakes!_

He commanded his body for the umpteenth time, but since he'd seen the light above her, Masa-Naruto had been unable to make himself move. A single curse had fallen past his lips and that was it.

But she absolutely had to look down!

He wasn't entirely sure what was going on right now, though he had his suspicion. Naruko must have felt guitly over something, and was giving in to the temptation to just let the world have its way and cast her out… but she didn't see what he did! She wasn't looking at the right thing. Below the unstable, nearly transparent form of Naruko, now barely connected to her by a thread of chakra, as the limp body of Makiko.

Sinking.

Lifeless.

Dying the black waters _red._

"Naruko!" he _screamed_ at last.

The slowly rising form of Naruko twisted in the air, seeking him out. When her eyes found him, she frowned, before smiling at him _apologetically_. Her ascent continued.

"Down!" he shouted at her desperately, again urging his body to move. He was able to take a shaky step as she shook her head at him slightly. "Look. Down." Masa-Naruto insisted, stumbling towards her.

 _Why?_

The voice was the strangest mix of an adult Naruko, and the one he'd grown used to coming out of Makiko's mouth.

"Don't you dare give up!" He insisted feverently. "You can't… come back Naruko."

 _Why?_

He was nearly below her now, and her eyes had been following him. With a leap he landed right next to the sinking body of Makiko, falling to his knees and shoving his hands in the black water to catch the girls arm. "Why would you go back on your word?" He questioned her.

 _To give her the future she deserves._

Was she not seeing what he was?

"Makiko is dead, Naruko!" He screamed in frustration, pulling with all his might until the limp body was back on the surface, blood flowing endlessly from her mouth and stomach. "Look!"

Naruko screamed.

* * *

Heart pounding in his chest, dread building in his gut, Minato dashed down the hall despite a med-nin calling at him not to do so. How could he _walk_ down the hall calmly after _that_.

An agonized, high pitched scream had just rang through the hospital. Unmistakably from the direction of the Namikaze occupied hospital room. It might not be from the room itself… maybe the source of that scream was from one of the neighboring rooms, but he had to get there and make sure.

He definitely wasn't going to listen to a med-nin who happened to be dashing down the hall herself now.

His hand stretched out to the door as he neared it, and he slowed himself down just enough not to run into it but through it after he slid it open. His eyes moved to the first bed, finding the form of Makiko crumpled into a ball, her hands on her head as her shoulders shook with sobs.

Before he could go to her, a firm hand was on his shoulder, squeezing it painfully. Fuck, he'd forgotten about the Uchiha.

He wanted to fight the hold of the Uchiha off, but had the sense _not to._ Especially when he realized there were two other Uchiha standing in the room. One by the window, one by the door to the adjoined room. So he forced himself to stay put, and thankfully the hold on his shoulder loosened enough that it was no longer painful. Still it was clear the Uchiha didn't want him to move. Damn it.

Minato tried to steady his breathing as he took in the rest of the room. The IV stand was on the floor, the tube torn from Makiko's arm. He tensed, and the hold of the Uchiha teen tightened again.

The Med-Nin was then in the room, rushing over to the bed to the sobbing girl. She was speaking to softly for Minato to hear what she was saying over the rush of blood in his ears, but the woman was softly rubbing the girls back with one hand, and had her other placed on the child's forehead, surrounded by green healing chakra.

Makiko's trembling slowly came to a stop, her sobs becoming soft sniffling. The Med-nin urged the girl to lie back down, before she turned her attention to the child's arm where the IV had been ripped out from the girls sudden panic. The small wound there was quickly healed, though Makiko continued to sniff slightly even following this. "Makiko-chan," the woman was saying softly to the child. "Your Nii-san is here."

And then the hold on his shoulder was gone.

Makiko's eyes moved from the Med-nin about the room, seeking out her 'nii-san'. He quickly moved to the bed, her eyes finding him before he reached it. She reached her other hand out towards him, so Minato made for the other side of the bed.

And there was Masato on the floor. He was rubbing his arm which looked to already be bruising, and there were tears in the corner of his eyes, but he had made no sound until now. The older Namikaze quickly put together why the boy was likely on the floor. He'd been up on the bed with Makiko, likely having been concerned for her and wanting to reassure himself she was okay, when Makiko had woken up and panicked. Was it because she didn't recognize where she was, and the people around her?

"Nii-san," Makiko's voice came out shakily, and his eyes snapped back to her. Minato put on his best reassuring smile. Before he bent down and scooped up the boy. Then he sat on the bed next to Makiko, One hand supporting Masato's back so the boy didn't fall from his lap, and the other one taking Makiko's small hand is his.

He heard the door slide shut, and realized that the Med-nin had left, taking the IV and it's stand with her. So Makiko didn't need it anymore? Well, she didn't look like she had a fever anymore, and she had woken up. Although… her recovery was almost too sudden wasn't it?

Then again, both twins had recovered from their earlier fevers in short order as well. And this time Makiko had been ill for around a full day, rather than a matter of hours.

He almost wished she'd stayed ill longer though… maybe that would ease suspicion.

"Minato-nii-san?" the little girl was staring at him with wide, questioning eyes, which flicked about to the Uchiha by the sliding door before back to him.

Masato was shifting about on his lap, and before he could stop the boy he'd crawled onto the bed and next to his sister. So Minato leaned towards the girl, placing his now free hand atop her head comfortingly (he hoped it was at least.) "You're safe now, Makiko," he told her softly.

It wasn't a lie in this moment at least.

* * *

Hiruzen resisted the urge to sigh heavily. "They aren't even two years old," he spoke firmly to those present. "I will not consent to having their minds forcefully probed. It could cripple their mental development." Honestly, the trio out to know that. They didn't use the Yamanaka's mind infiltration jutsu on children so young, even should they be suspected as spies. Unless they were _confirmed_ enemy nin… but that was more because once you had your headband, Konoha legally viewed you as an adult. The Hokage had his hands tied on that one… but this? No. He would not condone it.

"How do you propose we ensure the pair are not spies then, Hiruzen?" Danzo asked lowly. "Torture would be just as damaging to their development."

Yes it would. Or more so. And Hiruzen wasn't considering it as an option in the slightest. Which Danzo would have known before mentioning it. The Hokage did not appreciate the thinly veiled challenge to his authority. But he kept his face neutral, lacing his fingers together as he rested his elbows on his desk. "There is no need to go to such extremes," he spoke calmly, his focus mainly on Danzo now, as Koharu looked thoughtful, and Homura was nodding agreement. Likely because he had a small child of his own and could not help but think of how it would damage his son if these things were done to him. Koharu's child was already in her final year at the academy, so the woman would likely have an easier time 'forgetting' how immoral it would be to practice torture on toddlers.

Danzo only fathered a son to solidify his position as head of the Shimura clan, and had even enrolled the boy into the academy this year, at the young age of _four._ There was very little love there, if any.

"You have a point Hiruzen," Koharu spoke up now. "They are young and malleable now. Even if they were being raised to be spies, at this age we can groom them to our advantage."

The Hokage held back another sigh. That was not what he'd decided upon for the pair… but on the other hand it would make the trio more accepting of his chosen methods to 'vet' the pair. "The only family they know is a Shinobi of the leaf. Fostering that bond will make them loyal to Konoha."

"They have a father somewhere," Danzo deadpanned. "Who could be looking for them. You said the woman was being pursued, did you not, Jiraiya?"

The jounin crossed his arms and leaned against the wall he'd been standing by since he'd given his portion of the report. Jiraiya had wisely skipped over some of what he'd told him in the morning, and Minato had thankfully followed his Sensei's lead. If his advisers had heard everything the white haired Jounin had to say about the twins, this would be a different conversation altogether, he was sure.

"The chances are good she was being pursued, but the woman had a bounty. It could have been monetarily driven." His student looked bored as he said this, giving a slight shrug for effect. It was a rather convincing act.

"Her bounty was conditional on her being brought in alive," The black haired elder responded.

"True," Hiruzen cut in quickly, "However, she wouldn't have allowed herself to be captured without a fight."

"Probably she was spotted by some bounty hunters who thought to take the opportunity, and underestimated her," Jiraiya added with a shrug. He clearly wanted those assembled to believe her pursuers hadn't been after her specifically, just what they thought would be a quick pay off.

"That may be so, but we have to be sure these two are not a threat to the village," Danzo stated, eyes narrowing. "We are on the verge of war."

"We aren't that close to war, Danzo," Hiruzen replied, this time allowing the sigh to escape him. "Though it is becoming clear a conflict will be unavoidable in the next few years." It was true. War wouldn't happen next month, and likely not six months from now either. After that however? At the rate tensions were building, it would take a great sacrifice on their part to avoid a war… and Hiruzen was not willing to make the sort of sacrifices the other villages would find acceptable to stop a war.

They would be something like handing over prized Kekkei Genkais, or if not that, exiling the clans. Things that would greatly reduce Konoha's military power. Which would save them from war for a time, but would only invite the other villages to attack Konoha for it's resources in the future. Weakening themselves to prevent a war was not an option.

"Give the pair to Inokai and Shikatsu," Homura announced suddenly, drawing Hiruzen out of his slight introspection. "They should be able to evaluate their psyche and risk factor without causing undue trauma."

The third Hokage had to keep himself from grinning now. This was exactly what he had decided upon, and here one of them was suggesting it for him. "An excellent suggestion, Homrua." He agreed with a brief nod. "Are you in agreement, Koharu, Danzo?"

Koharu nodded immediately. "That is acceptable."

Danzo was silent for a moment, not bothering to keep himself from frowning. "I agree.. provided Inokai will be given leave to use his clan's techniques if the evaluation gives reason for concern."

Reason for concern. Danzo could find such reasons where Hiruzen saw none. He'd done it frequently. He was going to have to have a chat with the Yamanaka and Nara clan heads to make sure they _didn't_ include something in their evaluations that would give Danzo that chance… unless they really saw the pair as risk.

"Agreed."

* * *

Jiraiya held back his sigh of relief until he was clear of the Hokage tower and could no longer feel eyes on him. That had gone better than he could have hoped for. The twins were naturally still suspicious to the trio of advisers, but they weren't going to be tossed in a cell, or tortured to evaluate the risk factor, and the man had no doubt Hiruzen had gotten things mostly the way he'd wanted them with that meeting.

He wasn't so pleased that they advisors had then proceeded to demand the evaluation be done for Masato immediately, and Makiko as soon as she woke. Hiruzen had summoned the two clan heads before dismissing him to go collect Masato. It would have been better to allow the twins more rest… but at the same time this meant getting Uchiha eyes off of them sooner.

Although he prefered the Uchiha to Anbu selected by Danzo. The clan was a bit distant with other citizens of the village, but they were fair in their enforcement. And most importantly, not one of them would be caught dead in Shimura Danzo's pocket.

The Jounin moved at a brisk walk through the streets to the hospital, mind focused on what would come next. If the pair had a favourable evaluation, the discussion would turn to what to do with them in the future. And how they would be cared for.

If the sly Sarutobi had decided the twins would not be put immediately into some sort of strict training, Jiraiya had no doubt the man would get his way on that. At least until they were four, as through the village's history there had been less than a handful of shinobi who'd entered the academy at the age of three. Four was usually only reserved for prodigal clan kids, and five for prodigies outside of the clans.

At least, when they were in peacetime.

Jiraiya had a feeling the pair would be forced into the Shinobi career. By the time they were five they would be in the academy if not sooner. Or they would be in a less friendly training program.

The jounin sighed again as he entered the main doors of the hospital. He didn't bother checking in with the nurse at the front desk, and she didn't call him back as he made his way quickly towards the stairs. She knew where he was going.

He made his way up to the third floor, and down the hallway towards the room the twins had been left in.

"-i-san," he heard a small female voice. "where?"

Makiko was awake?

"We're in Konoha," he heard Minato's voice reply as he reached the door. "This is a Hospital. Sick people and people with boo-boos get better here."

Jiraiya almost snickered. Instead he knocked lightly on the door, before sliding it open. The first thing he noticed once the door was open was that there were _three_ Uchiha present. All young to be sure… but three?

Was that the clan heir by the door?

"Jiraiya-san," the uchiha nodded his head to him, and by the jolt Minato gave it seemed the Uchiha had all been silent until now, and the boy must have forgotten they were even there. He needed more training.

"Fugaku-kun," he replied to the teen, and allowed himself a chuckle when the Uchiha's lips twitched with the want to frown. The chuckle caused the teen to glower at him; Leaving the jounin feeling quite satisfied that he'd managed to tease the Uchiha heir. "Sandaime-sama would like the twins brought to his office, seeing as both of them are awake."

"San… Di…Sandia-me?"This question came from Makiko, who's face until now had been half burried into Minato's side since Fugaku had spoken up.

Minato soothing stroked her back with one hand, "That's the leader of the village," he explained to her softly. "Sandaime Hokage-sama. It means he's the third leader we've had, Makiko-chan."

"Le..lea-der?" This was Masato, who was still holding one of Makiko's hands in his.

"Someone you have to listen to and who protects everyone," Jiraiya cut in, as Minato seemed unsure how to explain that one in a way they would understand.

"And someone we shouldn't keep waiting," cut in Fugaku curtly. "But what those two are wearing is far from acceptable."

The Uchiha had a point. The two were dressed in hospital pajama's, and their clothes had been taken and burned as soon as they'd been stripped of them. But he didn't fancy taking the pair into a store right now. Especially with how timid Makiko was being. The number of people about might be to overwhelming for her. He was about to say as much, when his eyes were drawn to the chair next to Makiko's bed. A set of girl's clothing was laid out neatly on the chair, and looking to the chair set by the bed in the middle of the room, he saw it had something for Masato to wear.

A nurse probably had brought the clothing in.

"Alright, c'mere Masato," he spoke authoritatively, walking to the bed to pick up the child. Masato reluctantly let go of Maki's hand, before he reached out towards Jiraiya and he scooped him up under the arms.

Jiraiya had honestly never thought he'd have to dress a child.

* * *

Minato was having a hard time not laughing at Jiraiya as he tried to convince Masato to put his foot into the _right_ pant leg instead of the left one. Makiko on the other hand was holding her arms up over her head expectantly, waiting for him to slip the dress over her head. The clothing they'd been given was clearly second or maybe even third hand, judging by the few patches here and there. But it was clean, and the patches well sown on.

Maki had on a long sleeved shirt in a cream colour, and a pair of black leggings, and now the brown, sleeveless dress he'd pulled over her head. Masato was still attempting to get Jiraiya to put a black pair of pants on him backwards.

"Sit tight for a minute, Maki-chan," He said softly to her, patting her hair down, before he turned to his sensei. "Masato, that's the wrong foot," he said matter of factly, even though Jiraiya had said so multiple times already.

"Really?"

Until now the boy had stubbornly responded with "is not!" (Fugaku's lips were twitching with amusement ant the Jounin's plight)

"Yes, really," he replied with a decisive nod. Masato seemed to be pouting, but he finally allowed Jiraiya to help him into the pants the right way round. Then went on a dark brown long sleeve top, followed by a plain white t-shirt.

Jiraiya sighed in relief, before he lifted the boy up. "Lets get them to Hiruzen then," he half muttered under his breath.

Why did the Hokage want to see them now though, Minato found himself wondering. Jiriaya-sensei didn't seem upset over it… but the man could easily be hiding it. He hoped it was nothing bad.

Returning to the bed that Makiko was sitting patiently on, Minato lifted her up when she held her arms out to him.

"We'll escort you to the Hokage tower," Fugaku announced simply, before he opened the sliding door and proceeded them out of the room. Minato waited for Jiraiya to leave before he followed, though he'd rather trail behind the other two Uchiha.

Was it really such a good idea for them to walk through Konoha with the twins, escorted by three of the Konoha police force? Minato didn't think so, but since his teacher said nothing, he kept his mouth tightly shut.

* * *

Hiruzen let out a soft sigh, allowing the tension to leave his shoulders when his office door had closed behind Danzo. It was a bit of a surprise that none of the advisor's had insisted on staying for the arrival of the twins after the two clan heads had arrived and been briefed on what was expected of them.

"Sandaime-sama," the gruff voice of Shikatsu spoke up, the man leaning against the wall where Jiriaya had been before he dismissed him. His scarred face was pulled into a thoughtful frown. "You don't think a pair of toddlers could actually be a threat to Konoha do you?"

"If they weren't already capable of using chakra, I wouldn't be concerned," was his deadpan response.

Shikatsu's thougthful expression darkened, and the one eared Inokai pinched the bridge of his nose at the words. "How well?"

"Well enough to climb up the stone figure of Madara at the valley of the end," The Hokage let out another as he said this, which was mirrored by Shikatsu moments later.

"I take it you'd rather not let Danzo hear of that," the astute man stated. Absently he stroked his goatee, fingers catching on the hairless patch from the scar that run up his chin to the corner of his lip on the right side. "Unless it turns out they are a threat." He nodded at the words, and the Nara regarded him for a moment, before his eyes flickered over to his fellow Clan-head. The Yamanaka nodded to whatever unspoken message the look had carried.

"We'll have the evaluations ready this time tomorrow," Inokai stated with a smile.

Plural. Even though it was expected they'd only be starting with Masato today. As in there would be an evaluation for each that was meant only for his eyes.

Hiruzen smiled.

Masato couldn't stop looking up at the Hokage Monument as they moved. It was just so… _odd_. Only three heads were carved in the rock, rather than the seven there had been in his time. Or the four during his original childhood. All his life there had never just been three. It just looked _wrong_ to him.

Jiraiya chuckled when he noticed the boys interest in the stone faces. "Those are the Hokages," he told the boy, and Masato simply nodded, eyes still fixed on the cliff. "The first one was our Shodaime, and the one in the middle was his younger brother, and the Nidaime." The jounin kept speaking, clearly thinking Masato was enthralled with the information. "That means the first, and second Hoakage."

"So… That one is the Sa- San-dai-me?" He pointed towards the rock face of the man he'd once refered to as jiji.

"That's right!" The toad sage confirmed enthusiastically. "He was my teacher when I was smaller than you're big brother."

"He mus be weally old then," came the soft voice of Makiko. "A grampa."

Jiraiya just about snorted. Masato didn't bother stopping himself from laughing. "Jiji!"

"Well… actually he's just a tou-san," Jiraiya came to his teachers defense, although he was quite amused by the impression the two had. "Although his oldest son is older than Minato, he's also got a little girl just around your age, and a newborn son."

A newborn son? Wasn't the old man Asuma's father? And He was sure Asuma hadn't been that old when he died. He was around the same age as Kakashi sensei, wasn't he?

They were older than Asuma! Holy crap!

Had Kakashi even been born yet? Or… Kurenai, or Gai? Iruka was younger than all of them wasn't he? What about Ibiki, or Shizune or… like, all the shinobi who were adults when he was a kid! How many of them was he going to be older than now?

How many of them might not be born if thye changed something this early on?

This was just ** _bizarre_**.

* * *

 ** _Word Count:_** _5855_

* * *

 **To the Reviewers:**

 _EclipseNightClub:_ Thanks for taking the time to review! I really appreciate it~  
Don't worry, there will be cute bonding moments ahead~

 _Oblivion168:_ Konoha can never have to many blondes with the potential to level mountains ;)  
Glad you're enjoying the fic~

 _Ale.18:_ Thank you for the praise~ Glad you enjoy my writing

 _Animecutylover:_ It's a bit of both for Naruko, and then just being 'affected' by her toddler body.  
Kushina glared because Naruto couldn't say anything and she found it annoying that he was staring without a word.  
Yes, that was a bit of a close call for them ;P"Uzu would be interesting… maybe an idea to use for a story in the future.

 _ **Thanks for the reviews~**_


	11. Ch IX: A Pwomise!

**A/N:** Hello readers~

I made it! Sort of. So here's the next **_Ex_** chapter… but no **_ID_** chapter will be coming out today. Sorry about that. I need to stop getting your hopes up for it. **but** it will be out on Thursday the 21st instead. I originally wanted not to update then because of it being so close to Christmas and all, but it just works better for me since I'll be back home by then.

Anyway, Hope you all enjoy~

* * *

 _Chapter IX:_ **A Pwomise!**

* * *

Being Hokage had taught him Konoha ran on Clan dynamics. Progressively less so following the war, but the Clans could still throw their weight around when they had wanted things to go their way. They were less prevalent, but no less powerful. At least that was the impression he had had.

Most clan shinobi were easy to pick out from regular shinobi; especially clans like the Akemichi, Hyuuga and Inuzuka who had unique physical traits when compared to the everyday person. Then there were clans like the Nara and Uchiha who you could pick out simply because of the way they carried themselves. They had similar common traits as each other (dark hair and eyes), but you would never mistake one for the other. The air about them was just too different.

Other clans didn't stand out much on the street at all. The main family of the Yamanaka's were easy to spot, but he'd never been able to pin down common features prevalent to the rest of the clan. If it wasn't for the way they dressed, the Aburame would likely fall in this category as well. The few he'd met that weren't shinobi didn't stand out amongst a crowed at all.

There was also clans that once had been large and prosperous, names still well known, but their status in his Konoha rather obscure. Like the Senju and Sarutobi clans. They were both huge contributors to Konoha history, yet he could barely name a handful of each.

Then there where clans that he hadn't even realized existed until he had become Hokage. Some quite powerful, despite being small and obscure. Like the Shimura, who by the time he got into office where being heavily prosecuted by the villagers. Illegally prosecuted. That had been a mess and a half to clean up, even though Kakashi had already been working on it his entire time in office.

However, seeing Konoha of what was at least twenty-five years prior to him making genin… well he didn't recognize it at all. It wasn't the lay out of the village that was throwing him off either… Konoha's streets had changed significantly on him quite frequently in his life, and he knew much of the village had to be rebuilt after the Kyuubi attack the day he was born. Something that had not happened in this version of Konoha yet.

It was the realization that Konoha had even more clans than he'd found in the word-work in his time. On their way towards the Hokage tower (once he finally tore his eyes away from the Hokage monument) the man-boy started to pick out small walled off estates with roughly half a dozen homes in each— unknown clan symbols featured on wooden gates. A few looked half abandoned, but even these were well kept up— the only sign of 'decline' being boarded up windows on the smaller buildings. Some of these estates looked like they'd once been larger estates, but had gotten divvied up for one reason or another through the years.

He knew Konoha grew in the beginning by clan alliances, but he'd never really pictured what that would look like, construction wise. Konoha of now seemed… so much stiffer compared to what it became after the Kyuubi attack. Oh, the people had the same friendly smiles, but when you put actual physical lines up between different groups that nauturally made everything feel more regimented.

What had it been like in the beginning? When _all_ of the shinobi were from a clan?

What had happened to all of these small clans that they were no where to be visibly seen in his last life?

Why the hell did they have to keep taking cross streets to get from the hospital to the Hokage tower?

Why were they even walking the streets instead of taking to the rooftops?

Seriously, in his time in office, he swore no one had ever kept him waiting as much as they were keeping the old man waiting now.

Except Kakashi-sensei, of course.

* * *

Minato had been about to ask the twins why they were so totally enthralled with the Hokage monument when his sensei had started telling Masato about it. Makiko's eyes had torn away from the stone faces to the back of Jiraiya, and then returned to the rock as he spoke. Soon after however the rock seemed to lose her interest, as her head started turning from side to side.

Her eyes were wide as she'd taken in the village around them, her lips parted in what he thought was likely to be surprise, maybe a bit of awe. Seeing at it was already well into the afternoon, the streets were abundant with shinobi and civilians alike. Some were bustling to and fro, taking care of errands, and others were standing around in groups enjoying friendly conversations.

Quite a few of them looked to their escort with a frown, and every time she saw that, Makiko's shoulders tensed. But it didn't stop her from continuing to cast her gaze about, trying to take in everything. So he started pointing at things she might find interesting, like stalls that lined the streets, various shops, and some restaurants. He told her what they were, and her eyes widened further, her little head nodding at each new tidbit, and her small voice tossing out some questions here and there.

Masato was soon looking back at him as well, trying to see what he was talking about, and with a chuckle Jiraiya had changed his pace so he was walking beside him instead.

"That's a tea-house called Okuha-do," he told them, pointing to the teahouse ahead of them on the right. "This time of year they serve the best ohagi I've ever had."

"Oha-gi?" the little girl asked him, turning her big round eyes back to his face. "What that?"

"It's a type of sweet," he answered a little lamely, not really sure how he could explain it satisfactorily.

"What a sweet?" This question came from Masato, and the older Namikaze found himself at a loss for words. They didn't know what a sweet was… probably had no idea that food came in a vast variety of different types and flavours—that there was more to eating than necessity. They'd probably never even been in a settlement this big before either.

"Well… things that taste like what we've been feeding you. But better," he answered after some thought, the tea-shop now behind them. Makiko was straining her neck to look back at it as they continued on, clearly interested. "I'll take you there sometime."

"When? When!" the two's voices synced together with obvious excitement.

After that they kept asking, pouts upon their lips when he was unable to give them a 'when' that they understood, or that was soon enough for them. Trying to distract them by pointing out something else didn't work, the pair now entirely focused on the idea that there were edible things out there even better than what they'd been fed on the journey to Konoha.

When he looked at his sensei for help, Jiraiya just laughed at then the pair started noisily announcing they were hungry.

Repeatedly.

* * *

This was so troublesome.

They were supposed to be off the rest of the day, and then tomorrow, since they'd only been back in the village since mid-morning. Instead he found himself woken after only three hours sleep, and told to go to the Hokage's office. Where he found one of his two teammates, and their father's.

Shikaku Nara was not at all pleased.

Even less so when he heard why he'd been woken up. His bloody father expected him and Inoichi to entertain a pair of toddlers. Why the hell did he need to be a part of this? Inoichi was alright with kids, especially with three cousins who were half his age or less. He was used to them. But Shikaku most certainly was not; he hated how his younger cousins cried to get what they wanted because they were simply too lazy to do it themselves. It was embarrassing that they relied on such an annoyingly childish form of manipulation.

Yes, coming from a Nara brat, _crying_ was most certainly a tool for manipulation, rather than an actual show of emotion. Because a Nara that was shedding genuine tears didn't wail as they did it. Except infants, and perhaps some sobbing was involved when it came to toddlers.

It was just a _fact_. (or so Shikaku was convinced)

Sure, he understood what his father was saying about how it was important to see in what manner the two toddlers interacted with those the same age as Minato Namikaze, in an environment that made them feel more at ease than the journey here had. But why did his dad have to drag him into it? Why not one of Minato's teammates? Like Inoichi's cousin, Inoru? The boy was actually nearly a year older than them, but that wouldn't matter to a pair of twenty-three month olds. They both had already seen Inoru as well, so what reason did his father have that he felt he was better suited for this?

There wasn't one (as far as he could reason). So the reason was something else that had nothing to do with him being a better fit than Inoru. His father trusted him not to say anything he was instructed to keep to himself.

That had to be it.

And damn, that line of thought was _troublesome._ He was a Genin, and typically they shouldn't have to worry about complicated politics, and higher-ups being subtly at odds.

But he liked Namikaze Minato. He was one of his few peers who _dared_ to play shogi with him. The only one who'd managed to beat him. Although it was just _once_.

Still, he was by far his most challenging shogi opponent, aside from the adults in his clan (and some of them weren't really that challenging anymore either). And if the evaluation of his friend's newfound siblings somehow got the two taken away from him, Shikaku had no doubt Minato would turn moody for quite some time. Shogi would be out of the question.

Now _that_ would be troublesome.

* * *

Was she in denial?

Makiko but all her effort into trying to seem cheerful and childish. Asked her brother any child-worthy question she could think of. Viciously kept her mind occupied. Because the moment she stopped she'd have to face it.

Acknowledge it.

 _Accept_ it.

The eyes that followed the uchiha did nothing to set her in a better mood. They just made her feel on edge. Adding to the things she needed a distraction from. So she compared the Konoha around her to the one she had known so well. Listened adamantly to Minato's words on various stalls and stores. Joined Masato in childish pleasing

But now they were ascending the lazy spiral of stairs that would lead them into the Hokage tower. She'd fallen silent when the shadow of the structure engulfed them. Masato stopped whining about his hunger when they were half way up, though he had quite the pout in his face.

She however was wondering what would happen with the old Hokage (who wasn't quite that old now). Why did he want to see them now? She figured that if they were going to get locked up, it would have happened already. They wouldn't have been given the chance to see the village streets either. They'd have been snatched from the hospital and either be blindfolded or unconscious for transit to the holding location.

That didn't mean this summons couldn't end up badly for Masato and herself. The apprehension she was feeling right now was suffocating. All consuming.

Which kept her mind from fixing on _it._

Instead she was going over the possibilities. Since they would have already been locked up or killed if that was what the Hokage had wanted, the man clearly had some reason to believe they were not a threat, or potentially useful. While she would prefer the first, she knew that was very unlikely given that war was likely not that far away. She really wished she knew on what terms Haruka had left the village. Was she injured and unable to return, resulting in her being declared MIA? Had she been forcefully taken and Konoha had declared her dead after not being able to find her?

If it was either of those then why hadn't Haruka headed right for Konoha after making their escape?

That was a foolish question. Because that would be what the group would expect her to do of course. Maybe she'd been trying to head indirectly towards Konoha the entire time? Trying not to be obvious with the intention, until they were close enough that it wouldn't matter if their pursuit knew?

But what if she had defected?

The very idea of that made her feel sick to her stomach. But she couldn't deny the possibility… the likelihood of it. What if she'd been tricked into defecting by the man who raped her? It was entirely possible, and sadly made a lot of sense when she thought about the forlorn expressions she sometimes spotted on the late Namikaze's face when she was supposed to be sleeping. It would give new meaning and depth to the self-loathing she knew the woman had felt. It made more sense for that than if her mother had been forcefully captured. Most of her hate would have been directed at her captors then, right?

But if Haruka Namikaze had indeed deserted Konoha, Masato and she could be in for a lot more trouble than she had expected.

The little girl worried her bottom lip, eyes refocusing on their surroundings.

Crap. That was the Hokage's office door right in front of her.

* * *

Hiruzen regarded the two Genin whom had been summoned at the request of Shikatsu. The respective heirs of the two jounin's clans. They were both promising young shinobi, but he could see the shadow of fatigue beginning to grip them. Their team had been sent on quite a few missions lately, under the supervision of his nephew, who'd only been a Jounin a month longer than he'd had his genin team.

If he could spare the team an additional day of rest, he would. As it was, giving them all of tomorrow off on top of the remainder of today had taken some doing. They had been expected back from their mission yesterday afternoon.

Despite that, however, Shikaku seemed as sharp as ever. The Nara could very well end up a better strategist than his father, at the rate he was developing. He was typically lazy like many Nara where, and yet since becoming a Genin he'd surprised them all on several occasions by taking the initiative when the same results could have been achieved without him doing so. Just not as quickly. Not as efficiently.

He never expended unnecessary energy. Never did anything he didn't think he needed to do. He wasn't stubborn, and could be convinced it was something he should do when he'd initially decided otherwise. He also wasn't afraid to ask why his squad had been selected for particular missions when he couldn't discern a reason himself. At least, when they'd first become genin. He didn't always get answers, but he started out almost always asking the 'why'. The longer he'd been out in the field though, the less he asked.

Now the boy had no questions.

Honestly, he'd expected the young Nara to say something. To inquire as to why he was there instead of Minato's yamanaka teammate. A question had most certainly been in the young shinobi's eyes when he'd first explained that he and Inoichi were expected to watch over a pair of toddlers for the remainder of the day. Clearly the young genius had figured out there was an unspoken purpose to this, and of what sort of nature it possessed.

The Nara neither questioned nor protested his new instructions.

In contrast, Inoichi looked a touch confused. However, he took cues from Shikaku, and remained silent, waiting patiently for the arrival of the Namikaze siblings.

When the door opened he had visual confirmation of what one of his anbu had told him. Makiko had indeed recovered from her fever and looked quite well (as well as an underweight toddler could). Minato was carrying her on his hip, rather than his back, which must have made it difficult for him to walk about considering he was a rather small boy for being ten. Masato was carried in a similar fashion by Jiriaya, and although it was strange to see his perverted student carrying a child, it did not look as comical as Minato and Makiko.

The fact that Makiko had recovered so quickly was both a relief and a headache however. It was good she was well, but the abruptness of it could make it that much more difficult to convince his advisors that there was no threat in the pair.

"Thank you, Fugaku-kun" he addressed the young Uchiha heir, who had opened the door to admit the group in, the other two Uchiha remaining outside. He lifted a scroll up from his desk, holding it out towards the young man. "Deliver this to your father for me."

"Of course, Hokage-sama," was the curt response, even as Fugaku strode across the room. Taking the scroll in hand he turned, stopping at the door way to boy his head to him. "Excuse me." With that he shut the door, although before it was shut completely he heard the young man telling one of the uchiha to remain stationed there in the case that their 'charges' leave before he got back.

With the Uchiha gone, Hiruzen put on his best, friendly smile as the wandering eyes of the twins finally landed on him after exploring the room. "Hello there Masato-kun, Makiko-chan," he greeted softly.

In response Masato gave him a wide smile, chirping out an enthusiastic "Hi!"

Makiko however turned her face into Minato's shoulder, a muffled "'lo," heard after her face was hidden.

"Who you?" the sunny little boy asked him without a hint of the shyness his sister showing. The Sartubi male chuckled heartily.

"I'm Sarutobi Hiruzen," introduced himself, and the boy tilted his head from side to side with a frown. "But most know me as the Hoka— "

"Hokage—Leader man!" the enthusiastic call interrupted him, the child gestering with one tiny hand with a stubby little finger extended towards him. He wondered how the boy would know the Hokage was the leader of the village, but after seeing that Jiriaya was grining broadly as well (in fact the man snorted), he had to assume for some reason or another his student had explained.

"That's right," he confirmed for the child's benefit, before he addressed the two father and son duo's. "Why don't you all introduce yourselves to our young friends?" It sounded like a question, but of course it was not.

"Nara Shikatsu," the Jounin commander spoke without pre-amble from to the right of his desk, arms still crossed over is chest. "And that there is my son," he added, nodding his head towards the boy who had positioned himself by the right hand wall.

Shikaku grimaced, before he straightened, and lifted one hand lazy, drawing the gaze of the boy (and it seemed makiko was peeking over at him if the slight movement of her head was any indication). "Shikaku," the young genius provided his name and nothing more.

In contrast to the lacklustre introduction of the two Nara's, both Yamanaka's put on bright smiles. Inokia stood to his left, and Inoichi had moved to stand beside his father (slightly in front) when the Namikaze's had entered with Jiraiya. "Hello, I'm Yamanaka Inokia," he introduced himself before he placed a hand on his son's shoulder, "And this s my son, Inoichi."

"It's nice to you meet you, Masato-kun, Makiko-chan," the blonde added to his father's cheerfully.

"Nice meet!" Masato chirped back, waving to the Yamanaka boy. Makiko made no verbal response, but she had finally raised her head again to show her little face.

"I see you don't have any shoes," Inokia spoke up again, pointing at Masato's feet that were only covered in bandages. Hiruzen hadn't noted this detail before now, and he frowned. Why had they been given fresh clothing but no shoes? Had there not been any available.

"Shikaku, go and buy them some shoes," the Nara patriarch spoke up, "Five and Six." Trust a Nara to be able to measure out what size of shoe would be needed at a glance.

"Minato, Inoichi, why don't you go with them?" Hiruzen added. It would be a great opportunity to ask the twins a few questions while the trio io boys ran the errand. "If Makiko-chan will go to anyone else here" he added on when he saw the intense frown that knitted the older brother's face.

Shikaku let out a sigh, clearly not too happy about being sent on the errand. But he asked no question, instead shoving his hands in his pockets before he made his way to the door. One hand on the knob the boy tossed a "I'll wait outside," over his shoulder before the wooden object was pulled open and he disappeared beyond it.

Inoichi looked after his teammate, then at his father, before he followed after the dark haired Genin.

Hriuzen met the gaze of the eldest Namikaze, who held it determinedly for a minute. Then the boy's eyes lowered slightly, his shoulders slackening in what almost seemed like defeat. He lowered his sister so she was standing on her own, and then he squatted so he was around her eye level. "Maki-chan, will you be okay of Ni-san leaves for little bit?" he asked her softly.

The girl looked almost ready to cry, one of her hands grasping at his sleeve. "Ni-san come back?" The question was _desperately_ insistent, her voice laced with unmistakable fear. It wasn't a fear of her brother leaving itself, but seemed more to be about a fear he would not come back. "Not like Ka-san…. Ni-san come back?"

The hokage felt a stab of pity for the child's words, and sympathy for Minato whose eyes had gone as wide as dinner plates. His eyes turned glassy with the threat of tears, as he pulled the girl into a tight hug.

"Ni-san will definitely come back. I promise," the boy spoke with vehement conviction as he pulled back from the hug.

The boy was clearly smitten with his new siblings. Hiruzen really did hope things turned out favourably for the little family, after that scene.

The girl accepted her brother's words with a nod, "A pwomise. Rememer!" and it was the most energetic she had sounded so far. Then she shrugged way from Minato's hands on her shoulders before she toddled over to Jiraiya and promptly attached herself to his pant leg.

Hiruzen chuckled at the flabbergasted expression on the genin's face, the boy standing there stunned until Inoichi poked his head back in the room with a query on whether or not the Namikaze would be joining them. Minato left the room looking over his shoulder at his sister up until the moment the door was closed.

"And here I thought she didn't like me!"

* * *

"You're going to fall."

The words came moments before his foot found air instead of the floor. With a help he pitched forward, head snapping frontward to see that he was about to take a tumble down the stairs. Flinging his hand out to the left he grabbed for the railing, missed, and then caught it on his next try. His right foot found the step two down, but his left heel caught on the edge of the step above, nearly catapulting him forward, but instead jerking his arm rather painfully. Grimacing at the pain and the embarrassing incident, the he righted himself before he started to rub his shoulder with his right hand.

"Maybe warn me before I reach the steps next time?"

Shikaku snorted, proceeding down the stairs in front of him. "Why? Going to make a habit of looking behind you while you walk?"

Feeling his cheeks flush in embarrassment he muttered a "No," before he continued down the stairs behind the Nara—pointedly ignoring the muffled laughing of Inoichi behind him.

He didn't like this though—leaving his siblings alone in the Hokage's office. Was it really necessary? Getting them shoes was clearly an excuse to get the genin out of the room for a bit, but for what purpose? And why had Shikaku and Inoichi been there anyway? Had they been called for the purpose of keeping him distracted and away from the twins while they questioned them?

Or herded them off somewhere? He clenched his fists at his side, biting his lower lip. No. That wasn't it… right?

He didn't know.

He wanted to believe that the pair, whom he considered pretty close friends, wouldn't do that to him. But they were Genin, the same as him. He wasn't so naïve as to think that because they were friends they would refuse to do a mission asked of them directly by the Hokage. So if that was the case what did he do?

Get the damn shoes and hurry back to the tower no matter how they tried to distract him.

"Seems to me like you are making a habit out of not watching where you're going," the Nara's dry voice cut into his thoughts.

He blinked several times, and with surprise found that they had already made it to the bottom of the stairs and walked down the main street a block. Shikaku was not in front of him, and realizing the words had come from his right his head snapped that way. Both boys were standing there with an amused expression, where a side street cut off.

"The store we want is this way, Minato-san," Inoichi explained, his voice hinting at barely restrained laughter. Was he really being that much of a fool?

Stupid question. He'd just about stumbled down the stairs and yet still proceeded not to pay attention to where he was going at all. "Right," he mumbled, and hurried after the clan kids as they continued on.

Now what was he thinking about?

Right. Not falling to attempts to keep him away from the Hokage's office. The best thing to do, he decided, was to go in and grab the first pairs of shoes in the right sizes, and then get out. Not give them time do something like call a sale attendant, or that he should consider this and that about damn sh—

"Wha—" he let out a startled noise as his arm was grabbed and he was tugged to the right.

"Minato, stop spacing out," Shikaka was saying, Minato's eyes refocusing to catch the other genin's eye rolling. "Relax. We aren't trying to keep you away so they can do something to your siblings."

He blinked, and then stared. Really? They weren't?

"Yes really."

Had he said that out loud?

"Yes you did."

"Damn," he muttered.

Shikaku snorted, his apparent annoyance laced with genuine amusement. It was a peculiar impression to be sure, but Minato knew what it meant. Shikaku was not really annoyed at all. He was just trying to look it to mask the amusement. "Right…. so… why did you pull me over he—"

As he spoke his eyes moved about the street where he'd been pulled to, and he spotted a store with a colourful display of childrens clothing.

"Oh."

They had already arrived at the store, apparently.

"Come on, troublesome airhead," the Nara muttered, releasing his arm so that he could shove his hands back in his pocket. Minato watched him wander lazily through the door before a light pat on his shoulder from Inoichi snapped him into action.

He moved at a _brisk_ walk (it was all he could do not to run, or at least job) into the store, sidestepping Shikaku who had stopped only a few feet inside to wait. His eyes scanned the store seeking out a shoe rack, and he made a b-line for it the moment he spotted it.

Mens. Womens. Kids…. these had size five but they seemed too large….

"Minato," this time it was Inoichi who called out to him, coming around from the other end of the gondola, a pair of tiny shoes in either hand. "You want these."

He frowned, accepting the larger pair and examining it. "Uh… how do you know that?" He asked, feeling completely clueless as he carefully inspected the pair of black shoe-sandals.

"Five-tee," Inoichi responded.

What?

"On the sole. It has a five and a tee next to it. That means it's for toddlers."

Turning the right shoe over to look at the sole he spotted the small 5t in the center of the item. Now he felt like an idiot. Where else would a shoe size be?

"And black is really the best colour to get since they don't have any shoes at all," Inoichi was saying. "It would be pretty unpractical to get them coloured footwear, or ones with patterns that wouldn't go with everything. Then you'd be buying a dozen pairs of shoes only for them to grow out of them in months."

The entire time he had been speaking, Minato had been staring at the tiny shoe, only half hearing what was being said. But the last bit grabbed his attention, and his blue eyes moved back to the yamanaka's. "Few months? Their feet grow that fast?"

Inioichi nodded, and proffered the smaller pair towards him. Shifting the shoes he had into his right hand he took the other pair in his left. "That and they just plain old wear them out."

Minato had thought he'd started to understand how much work was going to go into caring for the twins, but now he realized that he still didn't know the half of it. It was going to be _expensive_. How could he afford it on the pay of a genin?

"Hurry up and buy the damn shoes," Shikaku snapped, and he could hear the nara making his way back out of the store.

That was enough getting lost in his thoughts. Quickly the Namikaze made his way to the register, setting the two pairs down on the counter before he pulled out his gama wallet to pay.

"Wait, you didn't grab any money from the Hokage?"

Inoichi sounded positively aghast.

"Why would I Sandaime-sama's money to pay for _my_ siblings' shoes?" he asked with a confused frown. And then the cashier gave him the might just have to sell the house after all.

Either that or make chunin in quick order.

* * *

With a toddler clinging to either pant leg Jiraiya was rather stuck. Whenever he shifted his weight one or both of them would tighten their grip… where had Masato's shyness come from?

Well, he supposed he couldn't exactly call the boy's actions shy. He was answer everything question in a clear voice, though he sometimes had to think very hard about it as he did so. It was more like apprehension. And the more questions that were asked the more agitated both of the twins got.

Makiko answered everything as well but sometimes it was mumbled, or too muffled because she'd hidden her face again. They had to ask her to repeat herself a few times, which had more often than not ended up with Masato telling them all what she had said. He was very in tune with her, it seemed.

They were very well in tune with each other actually. Finishing each other's sentences and offering up a word that the other twin was having difficulty saying. And there was no discrepancy between the backgrounds woven by one's word to the other. Usually there would be some, seeing as no one remembered every event in the exact same way; One would say something and the other would contradict it in some small way and then the individuals would confer or argue about it. But the twins took queues from each other, and there were no contradictory words, or arguments. There was unspoken agreements, supporting points, and additional information.

And Jiraiya knew they were going to have to subject them to more questioning, individually, before the evaluation was over. He also came to the conclusion that the pair had managed to win over at least one new champion in the fifteen minutes that had gone by since the genin trio had left.

If not three.

Shikaku was hard to read on the matter, but he had caught a slightly deeper frown than normal a couple of times, and a slight twitch of his lips that might have turned into a smile if allowed. Hiruzen-sensei was even more challenging to get a read on, though it was more because he kept smiling kindly towards the twins and the jounin could not tell if it was genuine, faked, or somewhere inbetween. But Inokia, for all he was a master T&I specialist, was currently an open book on the matter. At the beginning his face was a well-crafted friendly yet detached mask. But emotions flickered in his blue eyes as they had dug into the events that had led up to the twin's discovery by them, from their perspective.

It was the first time he was hearing their tale as well, having not had the time or desire to ask them about it while they were on the road. What if it had sent them into an emotional fit? That would have made traveling with the pair nearly impossible (he was basing this on the handful of temper-tantrums he had witnessed from Tsunade's brother way back when). The two's words were laced with emotion as they spoke about how the pursuit had begun that night, to how they'd been terrified when they saw there were people down by the river.

The more they spoke, the more Inoichi's cheerful mask broke, his lips shifting into different lines. Grim, surprised, pitying. Horror.

It was the words that had brought out this last one that had the most effect on the entire room. Masato had just finished telling the room about how their mother had insisted they run, and not look for because they would not find her. Makiko had burst into tears after this, and the boy had stopped talking in favor of trying to calm her down. Instead of allowing herself to be soothed the girl had sobbed out that the bad ones had taken the woman's hand.

Either the girl had watched it happen or had seen the hand or the stub after the fact. None of it was something a toddler should have seen.

Masato had looked close to tears himself, but rather than crying, he'd just hugged his sister silently. Stoic Shikaku had grimaced, and the Hokage's eyes had narrowed. Inoichi looked about ready to scoop up the girl who was all but balling.

Oh he would do his job properly in regards to 'vetting' the two to make sure there was no risk to the village. But it was plain as day that his heart went out to the little toddlers.

Jiraiya couldn't blame him. Although his own determination to try and ensure things went well for the Namikaze siblings was more for his affection towards Minato, than a personal attachment to the twins. Not that he wasn't appalled they'd had to see something like that. Or that he didn't think they were adorable. Or that he wasn't completely touched that Makiko actually did like him (take that, Tsunade-hime!)

In fact he'd almost wanted to demand they stop the questioning. But Masato had started talking after a minute, and the way his voice quivered made it clear that if hadn't started talking he would have been crying. And rather than saying this was enough for now, Jiraiya had found himself asking the boy a question about what he was saying, and then another, before his sensei started asking some of his own when Makiko's sobbing had quieted.

Inoichi eventually began to ask a question here and there, and Makiko started offering single word additions to her brother's words. At some point after that Masato had gravitated to his other side, leaving Makiko to cling to his leg.

Makiko made no fuss over it.

Masato hadn't exactly been clinging, at first, but as the main story teller switched from himself to his sister, he had pulled closer to the man's leg. And that was how the toad sage had ended up rendered immobile by a pair of toddlers.

When asked if they knew who their father was. Masato had muttered a "Bad man," which was enforced by a "very very," from Makiko. Hiruzen had asked if they knew his name, and in response both toddlers had buried their faces into the fabric they clung to.

"That's enough, isn't it?" he found himself softly asking. Their hands were trembling. The old man nodded, lips set into a grim line for a moment before his smile was back. Before the Hokage could make a verbal response however there was a knock at the door, and Shikaku's young voice announcing they had returned.

"Enter," Hiruzen beckoned, and the door was immediately pushed open to admit the three genin. Jiraiya would have turned to see the expression on Minato's face if it wasn't for the twins who still had their faces hidden. Even so he could feel the intense gaze of his little subordinate.

"Well then," he spoke up, needing to break the uncomfortable silence. "Your Ni-san is back." Masato peeked up at him, and then turned his head towards the door. Soft footsteps indicated that Minato was on the move, and soon he spotted him out of the corner of his eye. Makiki's head came up, her gaze landing on her brother, and she was gone, colliding with the Namikaze's legs.

Minato nearly dropped the bag he had in his left when Masato came at him moments later.

Ah, freedom.

"Alright, I'll be on my way then," he announced. He wanted to change. The brats had left damp spots on his pant legs. And he needed to check in with his other two genin, as well. "Make sure to get lunch into them soon, Mina—"

Two sets of wide, glassy eyes were staring up at him. What?

"Pwomise!"

Promise? What sort of promise did they want from him?

"Like Ni-san," Makiko demanded.

"No like Ka-san," Masato added.

"Come back. Pwomise!" the pair finished insistently.

All he could do was stare at them. Where had this come from? He understood why they would be like that with Minato, but him? They'd hardly had the time to get attached to Minato… and certainly not the time to actually get used to any of them.

Their little lips trembled.

"I promise!" he said in a rush. The twins's lips stilled, and then cracked into vibrant smiles, blue eyes twinkling.

"Rememer, remember," they chirped at him, and then their eyes moved back to their brother, and the pair proceeded to demand he take them to the teahouse he'd pointed out earlier.

These kids were going to have everyone wrapped around their little fingers in no time.

Jiraiya was not ashamed to admit that he already was.

* * *

 **Word Count:** _6605_

* * *

 ** _To the Reviewers:_**

 _Azaira :_ Yes, that's all pretty much in line with the research I did before I decided on time-line things for the fic that were not definitively placed in canon. It's vague and sometimes contradictory, so before I even started writing the fic I worked out the exact when's of a bunch of important events, and tweaked some canon dates when absolutely necessary. Uzu has already been destroyed at this point in the fic, but that's all I'm going to say ;]

 _Islamy96 :_ ah the typos. I'm not surprised that I missed some on my last read through before posting. I'll be going through and correcting little mistakes like this a chapter at a time, starting next week. Thank you though.

 _Oblivion168 :_ ha ha, that would be the greatest. First they have to get over the shock of being older than all of their sensei's though.

 ** _Thanks for the reviews~_**


	12. Ch X: Ridiculous

**A/N:** Guize I'm back!

I'm sorry I poofed everyone. I had a family emergency that hit me pretty hard. Not going to go into a lot of details, but it started when I was on my way back from work last time (in December) and I'm still kind of reeling from it. I tried getting back to this a few times in these last few months, but I just didn't have it in me yet. Sorry it has taken me this long to get back to this.

Because I'm just now getting back into writing and stuff and couldn't hold off on getting something to you guys as quickly as possible, this is the only chapter that I've got available to you guys right now (there are others finished but I'm editing and rewriting badly written parts that happened when I just wasn't in a good place to be writing). I won't be posting a chapter for this on Thursday this time, like I had been trying to do after my last poof. However, I will try to go back to that once I get myself caught up some more, so maybe not next week, but the week after. _**EX**_ chapters will go back to being posted on Tuesdays next week of course. For those of you who follow _**ID**_ I'm happy to say there will be an update for that one this Thursday because I'm almost done with that one now too~

Again, I'm sorry for my disappearing out of the blue yet again, but I sincerely hope those of you who are still interested in my fanfictions enjoy this new, fluffy chapter~

* * *

 _Chapter IX:_ **Ridiculous**

* * *

With new shoes on their little feet, the twins practically pulled him out of the office when Inoichi's father announced he would take them all to a late lunch. They didn't even wait for the Yamanaka to take the lead, enthusiastically trotting down the stairs. His heart pounded in his chest the entire way down, fearing that one or both of them would trip. "Slow down," the genin had tried, but was ignored.

And then just as suddenly as they had set off, the pair had come to a complete stop. He would have stumbled at the abrupt loss off their tugging had he not been a shinobi, and even then he just barely managed to maintain his balance. Frowning he looked down at the pair to try and figure out why they had stopped at the foot of the stairs. Makiko had her lips pursed, while Masato's head was tilted slightly to one side. And then the pair looked over their shoulder.

"Ino-"

"-kai-"

"san?"

Makiko had started, and trailed off as if she was unsure of how the man's name ended, but Masato picked it up immediately, and then makiko added on the honorific her brother had left off. Minato looked over his own shoulder to see that the other four had followed after them, with the smiling Yamanaka patriach being the closest.

"Yes?" the man asked, eyes doing nothing to hide his amusement with their little antics.

"Where go?" the male toddler questioned, with Makiko echoing the 'where' moments afterwards.

In response the man allowed himself to chuckle, proceeding the words "follow me."

"Okay!" both twins agreed easily, although it seemed to him they were practically vibrating as they waited for Inokai to head to where ever they were going so they could follow. Their eyes eagerly followed the blonde man and when he was in front of the group they started tugging at his hands again. By now the boy knew it was futile to try and keep them walking at a sedate pace, and followed along after them. Not that he didn't tense whenever one of them stumbled a bit. In fact by the time they had gone three blocks his heart was thundering in his ears again with nerves.

It was ridiculous, he knew.

By the time they had gone five blocks he was counting their steps between each small misstep, trying to identify a pattern were there was none to be found.

Through it all the pair was oblivious, happily skipping after the Yamanaka and his son who had at some point moved to stand next to his father. Inoichi was enthusiastically speaking to the man about his teams latest accomplishments. Or as much as he was allowed to given that they were mostly mission related and they were walking down a public street.

Despite his best efforts to focus on the conversation instead of on the non-rhythm of his siblings steps, it proved an impossible feat. The words might as well have been unintelligible gibberish for all he was able to garner from them.

Behind him the two Nara were useless as a distraction. Their 'conversation' consisted of curt questions and minimalistic answers. There was so little there that even if he had been able to focus on them the genin would have had to think very hard on the words to actually be able to decipher just what was being discussed. Not that he didn't try, as _that_ would have been a perfect way to focus his overactive mind on something else. But as he missed the beginning of their conversation, he lacked a vital piece of information needed to identify the subject matter.

The Nara swore they didn't speak in code, but the village at large would never believe that. Even if it was true. It was simply that there was so much unsaid between them, because it didn't need to be said to be known. That most certainly didn't classify as a code.

 _Nineteen steps between Masato's tripping._

At the moment, however, it might as well have been an alien cryptogram.

 _Fourteen steps since Makiko last stumbled._

Where they talking about meals? Or was it about training?

 _Twenty more steps for Masato? Seven for Makiko?_

Or was it actually about economics somehow? Or all three?

 _Twenty seven steps since Masato last tripped…. no, that was Makiko. Twenty - thirty nine? Fourty two for Masato?_

This was _ridiculous._

* * *

It was much easier to keep herself distracted with the prospect of food ahead of them, and the ridiculous tension she felt running through Minato's body. It was like he was expecting one of them to face plant at any moment. His eyes were flicking back and forth towards the tops of their heads, his brow slightly drawn together in concentration. What was he doing, counting their steps?

How far were they going for food anyway? It had been at least four blocks after they had turned down another street. There was restaurants on either side of them now, but Inokai kept walking. Really, wouldn't any of these do?

But the Yamanaka led them onward another block before he changed course towards one of the restaurant doors, and Makiko was struck with the thought that this looked like the biggest one. It was two stories. _Two_.

Why?

Maybe it wasn't actually as big as it looked, and the people who ran it lived above it or something?

She'd be finding out soon enough, as they were already standing just inside the restaurant. But it looked rather… odd for a place to eat. She didn't see tables at all, just sliding doors down a long hallway. But she definitely heard people beyond those doors, though the sounds were muted by the barrier… oh! This place gave diners their own room for their meal!

Somehow that sounded really… expensive to her.

"Maki-chan, we have to take off your shoes," Her brother was saying, as he pulled his hand away from her own. She blinked, eyes moving to the genin, before looking down at her feet. "Sit here okay?" the boy was directing her

Wow… you even had to take off your shoes at this place. That was so… posh? Or something? Not that she'd never had to do so at the places she'd eaten once she'd been Hokage. A few of them anyway. When you were dining with the other Kage, something like this restaurant was where you went.

"Makiko," Minato's voice broke into her thoughts, as she felt his hands under her arms, lifting her up to set her down on the padded bench in the restaurant entry way that she realized now was actually for the purpose of removing your footwear. She heard a snicker beside her, and realized that Masato was already seated on the bench, one foot free of his shoes thanks to Inokai-san. Clearly he thought it funny that she'd totally spaced out and failed to listen to Minato. She looked back at her older brother feeling a little sheepish.

"Sorry, Nii-san," she muttered, as the boy gently pulled her shoes off her feet.

Minato just smiled at her, ruffling her hair before he he slid a pair of slippers on for her. "Don't worry about it," he said simply, before he pulled away to take off his own shoes. She noted that the others had already done so, even Inokai who'd taken the time to help Masato. Not that it was really surprising. The lot of them were shinobi after all.

What did surprise her a bit was the fact that she hadn't even noticed the woman who was likely the hostess or something until she took this chance to look around again. But there she was robbed in dark blue, having just finished bowing to Inokai and proceeding to beckon the group to follow her to their room. She was pretty she supposed, with raven locks expertly twisted into an elegant updo, topped with a flower kanzashi. Her smile was serene, and her grey eyes sincerely welcoming. She moved with well practiced grace, and Makiko realized she must have been raised to work here. At least it didn't look like she hated it though, as her welcoming expression remained in place even as she closed the shouji door behind them after leading them to a room on the second floor.

Maki blinked, and looked around again. Wow, she hadn't even realized Minato had picked her up, supporting her with one hand as he likely had held Masato's hand with the other on their venture upstairs. She really wasn't being very observant right now… gosh.

Almost wanting to pout the little toddler scanned the room for every detail now. Minato set her down with a soft "Sit here Maki-chan", so she absently lowered herself down (which nearly ended up in her falling for not paying attention), stretching her little legs out in front of her as she finished scanning the simple but elegant traditional decor. There was two exterior walls in the room they'd been guided into, one with a sliding door she assumed led out to a little veranda or something. The other had two windows that were letting in the daylight. The room smelled faintly of flora, thanks to the artfully arranged flowers in their delicate glass vases along that wall.

The cushions that were the rooms seating were a rich, subtly patterned blue as far as she could tell, but she'd have to really look at one closer to tell just what the pattern was. Which didn't exactly seem like a good idea given her current company perhaps? Or rather… it would just look really ridicoulous if she practically shoved her nose into one to see what the pattern was. She was sure the adults would put it off as a child's curiosity, but she just felt like such an antic was unworthy of the atmosphere of this place.

Which might have been her own imagination really. It was extremely grand when she compared it to anything she'd seen in this life, but if she were to think back to the life of Naruko, it wasn't _that_ fancy.

She nearly gasped after that errant thought.

No. Do not think about it.

* * *

Masato was starting to get the impression that Makiko was trying really hard to keep herself distracted. It was a little bit of a concern, but at the same time he could understand it. She was probably still in shock… He was to, maybe. It had never occurred to him that if he wasn't in this body, Masato might not even be alive right now. Or that him being there had somehow caused the real boy to die (in soul at least). It wasn't at all a pleasant line of thought. Nor was it something he was going to dwell on however, because even if one of those were true, he couldn't change it now. He had to forge ahead.

But first he had to get some food in his belly, because they hadn't eaten since yesterday some time he was sure. And while it was true that they usually only got to eat once a day during their life on the run, the time travelling with Minato had already gotten him a _little_ used to more frequent (although tiny) meals. And he really wanted something _real_ to eat. Not that his meals hadn't been real… but they weren't very good, and far from a full meal.

But Minato didn't ask him or Makiko what they wanted when it came time to order. Nor did any of the others in the room. In fact, Inokai just up and order for them. One meal to be split between the two of them in fact!

Masato pouted and announced loudly he could eat up his own meal.

"Calm down Masato," Minato soothed, "It'll be lots of food for both of you, I promise." He kept pouting petulantly, even though the words made him remember that he was a malnourished kid who wouldn't be used to eating very much in one sitting at all. And the food would be a lot more than they'd ever eaten in one sitting before. It was a _real_ meal after all.

Makiko had wisely not peeped up, sitting quietly beside them, eyes on her own little toes, and one hand tightly fisted in the side of Minato's jacket.

Hopefully her thoughts weren't wandering off to dark places right now.

Seriously, couldn't someone in the group start a conversation? It seemed to him that both Inokai and Shikatsu were analyzing them… hadn't the damn questioning in the hokage's office been enough for now? That had been nerve wracking to be completely honest. But he thought they'd managed to handle it pretty well and hopefully convincing enough of their age. Because there was no question they were under some level of suspicion here. Why else would they have been brought before the Hokage and asked the questions they were?

They were a potential risk in the eyes of what was once their home village. It was hard not to feel sort of betrayed by the thought, but at the same time, he understood. While it never would have happened in his time in office, he knew that it wouldn't have been unheard of even back when he was a genin. And currently they were in an age of war, so any one brought into the village, regardless of age, would have to be thoroughly investigated to ensure the village was not compromised by them.

But seriously, how much of a possible threat could they think a pair of toddlers could possibly pose? Toddlers, even shinobi toddlers, were _innocent_ almost by definition. Had they sent up red flags some how?

"Masato-kun," the gentle voice of Inokai called out, and he gave a little start, turning his head to his right to look at the man. "Would you like me to show you how to use chopsticks?"

What?

And then he heard a soft voice calling from outside the room, before the door was slid open, and the waitress brought in several standing trays of food. She set two in front of Minato, one of which seemed to be food for his brother, and the other for Makiko, and then one in front of Inokai. Across from them, Shikatsu was only given sake. Wasn't it a bit early to be drinking? The adults weren't eating?

He supposed it was a bit of an odd time to be having lunch, though it seemed the two team ten boys hadn't eaten yet either.

"Masato?" Inokia spoke again, one of his brows arched questioningly at him.

He screwed up his face as if he was thinking really hard, and then nodded, with "Show me! Show me!"

Inokia seemed convinced by the little display, as he let out an amused chuckle, before he moved the tray in front of him, and first showed him how to hold the chop sticks, before he began softly instructing him how to adjust his own awkward hold. Damn… toddler hands really did suck. He used to be able to use chopsticks without any thought! He'd even, eventually, learned how to do so acceptably well with his left hand… although it was something he had very rarely done after getting his prosthetic.

Now trying to use chopsticks was just as frustrating as it had been when he'd had to learn how to do so with his non-dominant hand. In fact, it felt almost exactly like that… He screwed up his face again, now really in deep thought as he considered this and attempted to get his food in his mouth rather than all over. Eventually his hand stopped moving, and he was glaring at the chopsticks.

It was when he glanced over and saw that Minato was eating slightly awkwardly with his right hand, while he instructed Makiko next to him (helping her out occasionally) with easy movements of his left hand, that he decided _maybe_ his right hand wasn't dominant in this new body. Minato's motions in assisting their sister looked far more natural than those with his right hand. Clearly Minato was left handed, though he appeared well on his way to being ambidextrous.

Looking back down at his food, and then his chopsticks, he transferred the utensil to his left hand. Inokai made no comment on the switch itself, though he did hear the man give a soft 'hmm', before he gently adjusted his grip slightly and told him to give it a try. He did so… and wow, was that so much easier! It still required more concentration than eating really should, but it wasn't nearly as frustrating. He made far less of a mess using his left hand than he had been with his right.

Somehow the idea of being left handed instead of right handed had never really crossed his mind before now. It was just something he'd never really stopped to think about, even in his old life, aside from when he'd had no choice but to use his off hand. This time though, it would be different he decided. He'd become as ambidextrous as he possibly could. No more embarrassing incidents of being fed by others (Damn Sai) because his main hand was injured (or gone).

It was also really nice to be able to eat by himself again, in general. He had seriously been getting tired of being fed when utensils needed to be involved. It meant a little more independence. And he couldn't help but grin at that thought. The days of being fully independent were drawing nearer… and along with that, the ability to actually try and do what they'd been sent here for.

"What are you smiling about, kid?" Shikatsu's slightly gravely voice cut into his thoughts.

He blinked, and regarded the other man for a moment, before he widened his grin. "I don't need be fed any more!"

Shikatsu looked at him boredly, before he poured himself another cup of sake. "That's 'I don't need _to_ be fed anymore." The man corrected him softly, and then seemed to have lost interest in speaking. But as bored as he looked, Masato could see his eyes were focused on him and his sister like a hawk.

He decided the best reaction was to pout, and then look away from the man as he continued to try and eat. As it took less and less focus to manage to get the rice into his mouth, he cast his gaze towards his sisters progress.

She was glaring at her chopsticks, and then both of her hands. Apparently she was having a much more difficult time of it. It almost looked like there were tears of frustration in her eyes, as she passed her chopsticks from her right hand to her left to give that a try. She dropped a big clump of sticky rice into her lap. With a huff she passed her chopsticks back over, and dropped another clump of rice, this time onto the floor.

"Which hand feels better?" Minato asked her softly, even as he removed the fallen rice clumps, feeding the one from her lap to her with his own chop sticks, and setting the one from the floor to the side of his own tray.

"Feel the same," the girl announced petulantly.

Wow, She was really upset about this. Was it because he was having such an easy time of it in comparison?

Oh. Woops. He'd dropped some rice himself.

"Pay attention to what you're doing Masato-kun" the Yamanaka man admonished softly. "And don't forget to chew."

"Kaay," he responded even as he scrunched up his nose and tuned his gaze back to his own food. His eyes landed on the fish he'd been given, and he was contemplating if he should ask for help or just jab into it, when Inokai's hand was there, seperating the fish into managble portions for him. "Thank you Mister!" he offered, and then proceeded to polish of his little meal.

By the time he was done he felt fit to burst. It was probably the fullest he had ever been since becoming Masato. And while it should have felt like a small achievement to someone who once sealed away Kaguya, he was immensely satisfied with the fact that he hardly dropped any more food after switching to his left hand.

Makiko, on the other hand, had switched hands several more times, but kept missing her mouth so much that Minato had to convince her to let him feed her the rest of her food. When they got up to leave the room she had glared at him so fiercely when he went to take Minato's other hand that he'd frozen in spot for a moment.

In the end he allowed Inokai to take him by the hand when they left the restaurant to where ever they were heading next.

* * *

Where were the Uchiha?

Honestly, he'd actually forgotten about them until he'd cast a glance about for them just now. But thinking back on it, it had sounded like they were going to remain outside of the hokage's office… and then they _had_ still been there when he left with his peers to purchase the shoes.

They hadn't been there when they got back, had they? He couldn't remember seeing them, but he'd been more focused on getting back to the little twins… maybe he just hadn't noticed? They were all older shinobi than him, with more experience. He was the most observant among his peers, aside from Shikaku, but that didn't mean his eyes couldn't be fooled by senior shinobi. He was still a _genin_.

Should he even be worried about the Uchiha though? Maybe they had returned to their regular duties after Fukaku-san had returned? They were all in the Konoha police force after all. And following people discreetly through the village was not usually the way they operated. They were meant to be seen. A visual deterrent to crime by citizens and shinobi alike.

The Hokage hadn't said they were done escorting them however. Instead the man had given the young clan heir a scroll to be handed to his father. So him not being able to locate the three had something to do with the scroll. Which he didn't like.

"Niiii-saaan," Makiko whined, tugging insistently on his hand. He blinked, and came to a stop to look down at the girl who had until now been shooting glares back at her other brother and simply letting him lead her along.

"What's wrong?" He asked her softly, aware that the rest of the group had come to a stop. He could feel the eyes of Inoichi and Inokai-san on him, though the two Nara's seemed disinterested as usual.

"Sleeepeee," The girl declared. Her eyes did appear to be struggling to stay open now that he really thought about it.

"You three will be staying at our place tonight, Minato. You should carry her," Shikakatsu spoke up from ahead of him.

They were staying with the Nara's tonight? That could only mean they wanted to observe the toddlers some more didn't it? They were clearly still under some sort of suspicion. Which was more pressing of a concern than the missing trio of Uchiha. At least for the moment.

"Right… Up you go, Maki-chan," he spoke softly to the girl, lifting her up piggback style. She immediately leaned heavily into his back, but seeing as he didn't need to move at a run, he figured it would be safe enough to let her fall asleep like that.

"Lets go then," Shikatsu stated, before he once more took the lead. "I sent word ahead to my wife. She'll have arranged everything you three will need for the night." In other words Shikatsu didn't want to take the time to stop by Minato's place. Yet they didn't seem to be in that much of a hurry as they moved through the village. Still, he didn't protest, because he figured it was for the best that they get where they were going without taking detours. Makiko had just recovered from quite the fever after all.

"Are you tired, Masato-kun?" The Yamanaka head asked his brother. The two of them, at some point, had moved in front of him as the group had formed more or less into a line. Behind him Shikaku and Inoichi walked, the later half a step behind the former.

"I'm fine," Masato stated with a shake of his head. To his relief his little brother resisted the urge to look back at him and Makiko, keeping his eyes forward as he walked. It was a little surprising (and secretly he was a little upset) that Masato had so easily accepted being led by Inokai rather than himself. But then again, Makiko had looked at him so balefully as they were leaving that he thought his brother wanted to shrink out of existence for a moment.

The girl was obviously very jealous that Masato had figured out how to use chopsticks while the art had completely eluded her.

It was a little curious that Masato had caught on so quickly, admittedly. Especially the fact that he'd decided to try using his left hand simply from watching himself. But then again, young children were prone to trying to mimic others, and maybe it had simply been seeing Minato use Makiko's chopsticks with his left hand in demonstration, that had triggered the idea in the boy. Although he had more success with his right hand than Makiko had had with either of hers.

Every child was different though. He vaguely remembered attempting to use chopsticks successfully with his right hand for weeks before his father had suggested he try with his left just to see how it felt. Thinking back on it, his father had probably picked up on signs of him being left handed back then. He didn't have the luxury of knowing his siblings long enough to have picked up on the signs of which hand was dominant though. It hadn't even crossed his mind until Masato had started eating with his left.

Most people were right handed after all. He'd just gone ahead and assumed both of his siblings would be…. but he'd gotten his left-handedness from his _mother_. Not his father. So he really should have _considered_ the possibility.

Now that it was on his mind though, he couldn't figure out which hand was more dominant for Makiko. She was having just as much trouble with both of them. When Masato had switched hands the difference in his motor control had been made clear immediately.

He had to bite back a sigh as he walked. Because damn, there really was _a lot_ more to taking care of, and raising, toddlers then he'd ever imagined. He was probably in over his head, if he was to be honest with himself.

Not that that was going to stop him from doing his absolute best. He had a family again, although it wasn't the family he'd been hoping for in his most hidden, childish wishes. He'd wanted his parents back, and maybe a little sibling down the line. Of course, that was impossible, since his father was dead. More realistically he had wished for his mother to come back… but that too was something close to impossible considering the circumstances of her departure. He didn't know exactly what she had done until he became genin, but the suspicion he had faced after he was told his mother wasn't coming home was more than enough to tell him she had likely committed treason.

He'd had a foster family from a month after his mother left, to half way through his first year in the academy. It didn't feel like family at all, and the other kids had wanted little to do with him. They were kids who both parents had died due to some conflict or another among shinobi. He was the kid who's mother had abandoned him. They treated him as if there was no way he could understand how they felt. As if it was his own fault his mother wasn't around. It didn't help that none of them enrolled in the academy. Even his foster parents had tried to get him not to when they got word that he was going to be allowed entrance. That had created quite the fuss, and from then on the man had been borderline sour with him, while the woman had simply been distant.

The man would go so far as to forbid him from doing his academy homework in his house, let alone physically practicing anything he had learned. The woman set a strict curfew after he'd stayed out late every night for a week to make sure he was keeping up with everything he wasn't allowed to do at home, so he had to try and get everything done during break times and the scant hour he had after classes.

And then after mid-terms he was told that he was going to be sent back to his family home, and that a friend of his father would be in charge of his finances until he became a genin. He didn't know the shinobi very well at the time, but the man frequently dropped by after that, or sent his son along when he was away on missions. It didn't take him long to realize that someone was making sure at least one of them was in the village at all times so he had someone he could count on. He grew very close with the Hatake's after that.

But it still wasn't the same as having a family. Although he was sure Hashuro and Sakumo wouldn't hesitate to offer him assistance with the twins, he shouldn't get in the way of the Hatake's being a family. Sakumo had recently gotten married, he'd probably rather be spending his off duty time with his wife than helping Minato out with the twins.

If the pair didn't get taken away from him.

"Minato," Shikaku's slightly annoyed sounding voice called from beside him, and he blinked wildly for a moment. The others were not in front of him. "Stop spacing out…" His friend admonished, sounding as if it was the most annoying that he had to be doing this at all, topped with the muttered "So troublesome," Minato heard moments later. Shikaku pointed to his right, and he saw that the adults at taken a turn while he'd been lost in his thoughts once again.

He tried to brush it off with a laugh, though he was sure it just sounded awkward, even as he moved to catch up with Inokai and Shikatsu. He could hear Inoichi snickering at him from behind him, though Shikaku was now quiet again, probably thinking it was too much trouble to even laugh at this latest mishap of his. He really did need to stop spacing out so much though. Especially with Makiko on his back! What if he'd tripped and dropped her? Well, she probably wouldn't ever actually hit the ground because he or someone in the group would react quickly enough to catch her… but what if they didn't? She could get hurt because he was boing careless.

Unacceptable.

Determined not to let his own thoughts distract him again, Minato spent the rest of the walk to the Nara estates with his eyes flicking all about, as of looking for some sort of threat towards his two tiny little siblings. Well, that was exactly what he was doing, really. He'd just found them after all, and they were small and precious and innocent… and oh so easy to harm really. And there was still the threat of them being taken from him. He had to do whatever he could to protect his little family. To keep it together. Makiko and Masato depended on him to do that.

Was he going paranoid?

Yes, perhaps a little bit. (Clearly a lot really).

But that was the Namikaze Minato of the day. Doting, protective, paranoid older brother; ridiculously so.

* * *

 **Word Count:** _5370_

* * *

 _ **To the Reviewers:**_

 _KaixDecayx_ : Don't worry about having been a ghost reader for a while… I should be apologizing to you instead for leaving you with nothing new to read for so dang long! I totally understand life gets in the way sometimes.

 _Azaira_ : Well I actually was trying to find a way to get the rape of Haruka somehow made known to the adults in that chapter, but Makiko and Masato are trying to be really cautious about what they say so as not to bring more suspicion to themselves. I just felt like they wouldn't know how to squirm their way out of that one, or pull it off without being suspicious, so I decided they wouldn't try dropping that bomb yet.

 _Guest_ : Ah… it did sort of die… but I used my seven mythical dragonball keychains to call forth Shenron and wished it back to life!


	13. Ch XI: Dauntless

**A/N:** Hello Readers~

Here is the Tuesday chapter of Ex, and you know what? It feels really freaking good to have this out today, and because I really felt like it was ready (probable silly mistakes aside), not because I felt obliged to put it up just because I said I would. I'm really happy with this chapter now, and polishing it up was actually strangely therapeutic— which is kind of hilarious to me because when I sat down to work on it I thought 'this totally bites', because it just isn't as light or fluffy as the last chapter and I was really craving more fluff, or so I thought.

Anyway, I've decided that I'm not going to stress myself about trying to get more than one chapter up a week at least for the rest of this month. Thank you to those who expressed concern for me, and/or urged me to take my time getting back rather than trying to force more updates out. I think perhaps my wording in the last A/N might have been a bit misleading, with the bit of me still reeling. I meant that I'm still, in a way, shocked that the chain events even occurred. I assure you that I'm in a good place again now, and that I didn't really force myself to post last week =)

Actually there is a kind of funny little story about why I posted on Monday rather than Tuesday. I had every intention just to upload the chapter into my documents on the site and wait for the next day to update the fic itself, until I saw that there was a new review that hadn't been there the last time I'd dared to look, pronouncing that it was a shame the fic had died… I sort of posted the chapter right after I read that on impulse, lol. Which was perhaps a little immature of me, but seriously, it felt good to be able to be like "Ha ha, it's not dead anymore, random guest reviewer!"

Anyway, enough of my rambling yes? On with the chapter~

* * *

 _Chapter XI:_ **Dauntless**

* * *

How exactly had he ended up playing a game of Shogi (badly) with Shikaku while Inoichi played some silly game with his little brother? Minato was honestly not exactly sure. When they'd finally gotten to the Nara estate Shikatsu's wife had swooped in and whisked Makiko away before he could utter so much as a single word of protest, the sleeping girl not so much as stirring. Masato had almost immediately taken that chance to abandon Inokai and tug away at his older brother demanding to play, and they were directed to a place where he could let the boy do that… but Minato was completely unable to follow just what sort of game Masato seemed to be playing. Or games? That might be a more apt description really… it was kind of like the boy was switching between made up games with no warning, and Minato had no time to figure out just what he was supposed to be doing.

Masato had loudly declared "Minato-nii wrong!" More times than he had cared to count before he had somehow found himself completely benched in the activity of his little brother's play, Inoichi easily filling the role of playmate in in place. Masato didn't seem to care much in the slightest. Shikaku roped him into a game after that he supposed, though he didn't actually remember being asked to play Shogi. He just was.

And he had just lost.

"Troublesome," the Nara boy muttered with a sigh. "Inoichi isn't going to let the kid hurt himself Minato." It felt like he was being lectured almost… damn Nara. "Pay attention to the game this time."

Wait… they were going to play another?

Minato grimaced at the idea, but at the same time, couldn't make himself voice a refusal. Shikaku was just trying to distract him or something, right? His thoughts were all over the place ever since they'd finally gotten back to Konaha. Well, since they'd encountered his mother before finding the twins actually, but then he'd had a firm goal in mind keeping him focused. Finding the twins. Getting them to Konoha. Things he didn't need to think very hard on how to accomplish. Now that they were here he wasn't so sure on what he should be doing to be honest.

Maybe just trying to focus on a game of Shogi wasn't a bad idea. Shikaku was probably right. Masato wasn't going to hurt himself under Inoichi's watch… besides, Masato looked like he was having a blast.

"Right… okay… yeah, let's go again," he replied at last to his friend, giving him a bit of a sheepish grin. "I won't be so easy to beat this time."

"Says the guy who's only won once," the black haired boy replied, but he was grinning back at him now.

But then… maybe he should go check on Makiko real quick first?

No. One game wasn't going to hurt. Makiko-chan was probably still sleeping anyway. Right? Yeah…

But what if she wasn't?

"Minato…"

"Wha—Oh right, my move!"

The blonde flushed in slight embarrassment that once again he'd started to space out, even as he scanned the board before him so he could place his piece.

* * *

Why couldn't she have just stayed asleep? She didn't have to think, or try not to think, when she was asleep. Why couldn't she just go back to sleep now?

It was useless really. She'd been laying there for what was probably at least half an hour now, doing everything from counting, to regulating her breathing to try and fall back into slumber. None of it worked. Especially when her mind just went ahead and wandered all on its own. The cover over her was soft and smelt so good. The fabric enclosing her body was also very fragrant and far more comfortable than anything she'd felt on her skin in this life.

She was wearing a yukata now, she eventually realized when she turned from her back to her side to curl up in a last ditch effort to lose herself in the oblivion of sleep. Where was she now? What had the man said? His name was… Shika…. Shikatsu. Yeah. And he said something about how they would be spending the night at his place, didn't he? So this was the Nara estate, she guessed. The Nara was a very powerful clan, so it was no surprise that all the fabric she could feel was of such good quality.

It didn't help her to go back to sleep. Her little body was so used to being at least a little uncomfortable that these comforts actually made it harder. She never thought she'd be in that sort of position again, really. It was something that had happened back in her genin days, the first time she'd taken a long term mission where they had to sleep outside all the time. Coming home to her own bed had been such a relief, but she hadn't been able to sleep well at all for those first few days. By the time she'd died though she was past comfort levels having any effect on how well she slept.

With a tiny sigh the girl rolled onto her back again before opening her eyes to stare up at the ceiling. The ceiling was wooden of course, with planks of wood running lengthwise above her, and thin beams of wood dissecting the ceiling into squares. It was not at all that interesting to stare at and did nothing to keep her from her thoughts.

Makiko, the one who was actually the owner of this body, was _dead_. It was her fault… was it truly her fault? Did the real Makiko die because she was there, or had she (Naruko) just survived something that was supposed to spell out the girl's death in the original time line? How long had 'Makiko' been dead?

How the hell was she supposed to know?

Maki bit her bottom lip, using the pain to interrupt that train of thought. Don't go there. It's not worth it. Not right now. She repeated those words like a mantra in her mind, controlling her breathing and wiping the morbid thoughts away. Her hands clenched in the cover as forced herself to simply not think about those things. To think of anything else.

There was a metallic tang on her tongue.

She blinked, and brought one of her small hands up to her lip, realizing it stung slightly. Her tiny fingers came away with a drop of blood on them. She'd actually broken the skin of her lip. She stared at the tiny drop on her skin, and unbidden visions of red came to mind.

Hinata covered in blood, flying through the air from Pein's attack.

Neji's blood splattering on her face when he took that blow for her in the war.

The red blossoming in Sasuke's arm just before they both lost consciousness after blowing their arms off.

Her own blood coating her hands and torso as she was ran through. _No more._ Her breathing hitched, and she snapped her eyes closed, but that only made the images more vivid.

Life-blood spurting from the neck of one of their assaulters.

"Ma—k—ch"

A pale, bony hand arching through the air, hot blood dripping onto her cheek. _**Please**_ _just stop._ She whimpered, curling her knees up to her chest and burying her face into them.

"—aki—an"

A tiny broken body sinking into black depths. _Don't!_ She tightly gripped her knees, dull pain springing forth were her fingers dug in.

"Maki—ch—!""

Endless streams of red pouring from the gaping hole in the child's stomach. _No, no..._ _ **no**_ _… stop!_

* * *

Trying to play like a kid actually would was both easier and harder than he thought it would be. Games that such young children could be expected to come up with were terribly boring really. He didn't even know if a kid less than two would even come up with some of this stuff actually. To him though, it was so simple he found himself actually forgetting what he was actually supposed to be doing, and having to come up with something else.

He completely lost Minato to the point that Inoichi had pretty much forced his brother to the sidelines. By contrast, Inoichi was able to keep his strange games on track with 'is that so's and 'well what if I do this's until he found himself playing a game that was Inoichi's design, rather than some haphazard play he'd tried to come up with to look like a child.

It was a game he could vaguely remember Hinata playing with their kids in his past life, though he didn't know what it was called. Inoichi would say he spied something of a certain colour and Masato had to go find it in the garden, with Inoichi telling him when he was getting warmer, or colder. It seemed to be a game to teach young children in shinobi families to pay attention to even the smallest of visible detail, as the things that Inoichi had him hunt for progressively got smaller. He'd almost forgotten he needed to be trying to seem like a toddler when Inoichi had said "something brown circled by blue," and had just about gone right to the tiny flowers that had those colours.

Instead he'd petulantly snapped "That two colours! Inoichi play wrong!" Inoichi had apologised, and told him to look for something blue instead. He tried to make a show of really looking for the blue thing Inoichi had spied. He hoped he was convincing enough.

When he finally got to the small flowers that he'd known all along were the target, the Yamanaka boy came over to squat beside him, and pointed out how the center of the flower was brown, and the petals blue. He explained it a little more simply, and slowly, which was annoying, but Masato knew it was because the boy thought he was talking to a toddler. So he couldn't be doing all that bad then. He hoped.

And then a wave of negativity invaded his sense, and he tensed, eyes snapping towards the building in search of the source. "Masato?" Inoichi inquired softly, but concerned over what this was, he ignored him. It felt like… like Makiko. Makiko was awake. And upset.

How the hell did he know that?

"Masto-kun, you okay?" Inoichi asked, a hand now on his shoulder. He tried not to frown as he turned to look at Inoichi.

"I okay," he assured, and then nearly went on to say that Maki was awake and upset. But realizing he'd then have to explain how he knew, and he just didn't know how he did, he snapped his mouth closed and averted his eyes. "Kind of cold," he muttered, because he had to say something with the way Inoichi was looking at him so intensely he could feel it. It wasn't really that cold out, but he was a little bit chilled from occasionally crawling in the dirt to find what Inoichi was making him hunt for.

Looking back at Inoichi revealed the blonde was smiling kindly at him. "It is a little chilly out." Not really that chilly… although maybe for a child as thin as him? "Are you sleepy at all?"

Tired? Well… he wasn't really _sleepy_ , but his body did feel kind of heavy in what he recognized as the beginning of muscle fatigue. He hardly had any muscle mass at all after all. He screwed his face up into a frown. "just little _little_ bit."

Inoichi seemed to take at as a child trying to deny how tired he was, as he chuckled, and then gently took one of his hands. "Lets go inside and wash up okay? After that, maybe you'll be sleepy enough to have a nap."

He almost nodded until he realized nap wasn't actually a word he'd heard in this life. "Nap?" he asked with all the child's curiosity that he could muster, while pretending to fight back a yawn for show. "What that?"

Inoichi looked thoughtful for a moment as he gently pulled him towards the house. "Well, a nap is what we call sleeping in the day time. It helps you get through the rest of the day until bed time at night."

He screwed up his face further as if he was trying to comprehend what he had been told, before he gave a tiny nod and a soft "okay." Then he looked up from his feet towards where his brother was playing shogi.

Where his brother was _supposed_ to be playing shogi.

Shikaku sat by himself in front of the shogi bored, a slight scowl on his face. Minato was nowhere to be seen. When had his fa—brother left? Where had he gone? He unknowingly came to a stop, causing Inoichi to look down at him in concern again. "What's wrong Masato-kun?"

"No Nii-san," he mumbled, and the upset was more genuine sounding than he had meant for it to be. Maybe he was being effected a little by the age of his current body.

Inoichi gave his hand a slight squeeze and offered him a reassuring smile. "Minato isn't far, I promise," he assured before he gently lifting him up on to the deck around the house. "He's inside checking on Makiko-chan." Inoichi deftly removed the shoes from his feet, before sitting next to him and taking off his own. "After washing up we can go see them."

"'kay," he replied with a nod, letting the other boy take his hand again to lead him through the house.

* * *

Inoichi clearly knew what he was doing when it came to small kids. Minato couldn't help but be impressed with the way the yamanaka guided Masato's play into a game to teach observational skills to the children of shinobi families. He would definitely ask him for some pointers later. He was going to need it.

Too bad there wasn't really anyone he could ask for additional shogi pointers. He was still losing, though not as badly as he had last time. He could see how he could be beaten in the next three moves, and if he stopped that, he was probably going to lose in five moves. Damn. It was always a little humbling to play Shogi with Shikaku, because he started off thinking they were on even terms, and then as they neared the end of the game and he spotted the ways by which he'd just failed to understand Shikaku's strategy he was reminded of how much of a genius his friend was.

Still, he had managed to win once. He was determined to do it again, some day.

Today was clearly not that day though. He'd just spotted another opening Shikaku could take, and there was no way he could prevent all three. Not that he could think of at least. His friend hadn't pre-emptively declared himself the winner, telling him there was something he wasn't seeing that Shikaku did. Maybe if he…

"You're going to lose again," Shikaku stated flatly after he placed his piece.

Of course he was.

Minato gave a sigh before asking "What am I not seeing here?" Because he really did want to get better at the game and improve his strategy in general. Shikaku just pointed at a spot on the board before muttering that it was too troublesome to explain. Typical Shikaku. "Thanks," he murmured back, even as he examined the pieces in that portion of the board and thought about how each of them could be moved and… yup, there it was. Four turns, six turns, or seven turns.

Before he could try and figure out what he could have done to avoid falling into this particular trap his thoughts were interrupted by Shikatsu's deep voice.

"Minato."

That was all the man said. It was all that needed to be said, as when he looked towards the call of his name he could see the unspoken order to follow the man in his body language. He glanced into the yard to make sure Masato was still happily playing , before he got quickly to his feet

He was led to the room Makiko had been put down in to sleep, and greeted by the sight of the girl curled into her knees and trembling. Inokia was sitting next to her and softly calling her name, but she gave no reaction. The Nara gave him a light push into the room when he momentarily froze at the scene from worry. Just what was wrong with Maki-chan now?

"Don't touch her," Inokia san warned as he moved quickly to her side, one hand reaching out towards her. "You'll panic her more," he said softly. "Just try and get her attention with her name. Hopefully she'll respond to your voice."

Minato swallowed hard, dropping to his knees next to his sister and clutching his hands into fists to keep from pulling her into a hug. "Makiko-chan," He called softly, doing his best to keep his own concern out of his voice and sound as calming and friendly as he could manage.

She gave a jolt, and he glanced over at Inokia in further concern. The man smiled back at him and mouthed that that was a good sign. Try again.

"Makiko-chan," he repeated the call, just barely keeping his voice steady. Her head shifted slightly, and it seemed perhaps she was peeking through her hair at him. This was good, right? "Makiko-chan," he said again, making himself smile softly at her.

Her head lifted slightly, and it was clear she was looking at him now. Her hands slackened around her knees, and then reached towards him shakily, a desperate plea in the form of "Nii-san," slipping from her lips. He didn't look to the Yamanaka to confirm if it was okay to pick her up or not, he just swept her into his arms, sitting her in his lap and letting her burry her face in his chest. How could he not do that? She had looked like she would be inconsolable if he didn't hold her right then.

"PTSD," Shikatsu spoke again. His eyes snapped over to the man, who was clearly looking at the one beside him. Minato turned his attention to the Yamanaka, who looked thoughtful.

"Possibly. Early to tell for sure," Inokia explained lowly. He felt his stomach knot in unease at the very idea. PTSD. Post _traumatic_ stress disorder. It was something that was sadly very common among shinobi… but it wasn't something they usually had to worry about small children, toddlers, suffering from. At least, not since the establishment of shinobi villages.

But his siblings hadn't been raised in a village. They'd been out in the elements, and on the run with his mother. His mother who had suffered some serious injuries the night they'd come across them. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the twins might have seen some of those injuries being inflicted. It wasn't that far of a leap to assume that that hadn't been the first time the trio had been assaulted either.

"Minato, stay calm," Inokia warned him again. "Your agitation could upset her."

He could only manage a nod as he forced himself to be calm, relaxing his tensed shoulders when he felt Makiko burry her face deeper into his chest, dampness seeping into his jacket. The man then suggested he try rubbing her back, or speaking to her to help calm her down. He had no idea what to say, so he started by rubbing her back with one hand. The relief he felt when her hands slackened their death grip on his jacket was intense.

Being an older brother, and the only living relative of toddlers really was going to be the biggest challenge he had ever faced in his life.

He refused to be daunted.

* * *

After getting cleaned up and changed into a yukata, Masato allowed himself to be led by Inoichi again, until they passed one of the rooms. The room he got a sense of negative emotion from. He came to an abrupt stop before he realized what he was doing and tugged his hand impetuously away from the older boy. "No further!"

Inoichi looked at him with a look meant to seem coaxing, but he knew he was hiding how troubled he was. "Masato-kun, don't you want to have a nap?"

"Makiko first!" He insisted.

The boy looked for a moment like he was at a loss, before he tried to reason further. "Makiko-chan is coming after. She needed the bathroom."

It was a lie. But he shouldn't know it was a lie, so how could he say it? Unless they just played it off as some sort of twin thing? Though that might be a bit risky… still, with negativity he could still feel coming of Makiko she was definitely upset, and after what had happened before with her nearly abandoning everything, Masato didn't want to take his chances with letting her wallow in these feelings. Not at all. Clearly Inokia was hoping he could get him into a futon and that he would be to sleepy once he was in bed to kick up a fuss about Makiko not being there.

He wasn't going to play along.

"Liar!" He snapped, stomping his foot. Inokia tensed and his eyes narrowed slightly, showing he was now just a little suspicious. Still, Masato had to risk it. "Maki dere!" he jabbed his finger at the shouji next to them to indicate the room.

"Masato-kun, I think your just really tired," Inokia tried again. Did he honestly think that would convince him? "Come on, lets go for a nap. We'll see Makiko-chan when we wake up, okay?"

"No! Said after wash. See Maki NOW!" Maybe he was playing the act of temper-tantrum a little too well, because Inoichi winced, and even sighed in the sort of weary way of someone who come out on the wrong end of one to many temper-tantrums. He opened his mouth to speak again, but the shouji next to them slid open, causing whatever the Yamanaka was about to try to die on his lips.

Minato stood there, with Makiko supported on his hip, her face buried into his shoulder as she clung to him. "Masato, calm down," he spoke soothingly, and stretched the hand that he had used to open the shoji out to him. "Why don't we all sit together for a few minutes, and then you can go for that nap, alright?"

He stared up at his brother, then to the form of his sister who hadn't moved to acknowledge him at all, and finally at the proffered hand. He chose to ignore it. Now that she was right there, he could feel grief and guilt rolling of her in waves. "Makiko." He called her name insistently, moving up to his brother so he reach up to tug at her leg (her arms were to reach). No response. He glowered, and looked up to Minato again, ignoring the feeling of Inoichi's eyes on him, and the sounds of approaching footsteps. "Nii-san, down!"

"Masato," the other namikaze spoke in a tone he instantly labelled as nearly patronizing (though he probably didn't mean to sound that way). "Makiko-chan doesn't want to be put down."

He huffed, and shook his head. "Not Maki! Nii-san down." After all Makiko was using Minato as a life line right now. He remembered Naruko clinging to him when she'd been the most upset in their mindscape meetups that now felt like an eternity ago. She wouldn't let go until she was snapped out of what she was feeling… and she wasn't just going to come out of it very quickly on her own. That was okay. He'd just give her a push in the right direction. He'd done it so many times before. Even before they'd actually met.

"Nii-san!"

Minato put on a smile again, and used his free hand to ruffle his hair. He swatted the hand away, continuing to glower even as Minato finally moved to sit down, his legs hanging over the deck edge. He followed his brother, but shook his head vehemently when Minato softly invited "Sit here," with a pat of his hand to his other side. Instead he made a grab for Makiko's closest hand. He didn't try and pry it away, just wrapped his own hand around the back of hers.

"Makiko."

He repeated her name again, and her hand twitched, but he wouldn't have even noticed that reaction if he hadn't had his hand over hers to feel it. She was purposefully ignoring him calling her name.

"Baka-Maki!"

Her hand clenched. But she still didn't turn to look at him. Stubborn little sister! Minato was frowning at him in disapproval, and he felt his brother put a restraining hand on his shoulder. He quickly swatted it away. Now was not the time to play it nice. He was going to get through Makiko's thick fucking skull and wake her up if it was the last thing he did.

He was angry despite himself.

"GIRL!"

Oh. Shit. He should not have said _that_.

Minato's eyes were wide in shock. Inoichi's eyes burned into the back of his skull. And two more sets of eyes burrowed into his frame coldly. Calculatingly.

But Makiko had jerked, her hand loosening its hold in shock, and he tugged on it, because despite having done something that was absolutely stupid and was definitely going to cause even more suspicion, she'd finally fucking reacted and he wasn't going to miss this chance. Even though it really stung when her head finally turned towards him and there were fresh tears sliding down her cheeks. Tears he had just caused by calling her girl. But he couldn't apologize just yet.

"Look!" he shouted at her, tugging at her hand again, before he pointed roughly with his other at the blue sky that was just starting to get painted with pinks on the horizon. "Blue! Bright!" he continued. Fuck, having to talk like a toddler was making this pretty difficult. "Always come back!" he went on to insist as her wide eyes flicked between him and the sky in confusion.

 _Forget those dark skies. Forget the dark waters._ He willed. Tried to communicate with his eyes.

"Dark always go away!"

 _Paint them Blue again._

"'n if dark not go, I make go!"

 _I'll help you!_

The assembled adults simply stared, he wasn't sure if it was because they didn't know what to do, if they were waiting to see how this played out, or a combination of both. Minato was simply to shocked by his outburst it seemed, and the fact that Makiko had finally lifted her face out of his jacket, perhaps.

 _But what if I can't?_ More tears streaked down her face, and she vehemently shook her head. "Bu—"

"No but!" he cut of her protest swiftly. "Maki," and he pointed at her before pointing at himself "And Masato together."

 _You're not alone!_

Again she shook her head, the tears still flowing. "No kaa—"

No. She was not going there. "Minato-Nii-san here to!" he insisted. "Makiko never 'lone! Have **two** Nii-sans!" He pointed at himself with his left, and at Minato with his right.

 _We're a_ _ **family**_ _._

"We make all the sad and dark go away whenever it comes," he assured her, before he finally looked to Minato. "Right, Minato-nii-san?"

Minato's eyes were in turmoil, he could see. There were emotions of guilt, sorrow, and doubt. But with the question, they hardened, and all he saw was a dauntless determination as his older brothers lips curved back upwards into a confidant smile. He couldn't tell if Minato was really feeling confidant or not, because the expression was so _flawless_ in his perception. He didn't have the kind of confidence in what he was doing until he'd been Hokage for a few years!

It could be just airs… but that didn't matter though. He'd known for a long time that his will to never give up hadn't only come from his mother, after all.

"Yup, we will, Masato," the namikaze spoke calmly, an unshakable conviction in his voice. He lifted Makiko from his lap to have her stand before him, and her eyes immediately moved to his face. It was probably exactly what Minato had wanted to accomplish from the action. "We're a family. And that means we stick together," he said firmly. "So whenever you're scared, or hurt, or you don't know what to do, we'll do whatever we can to help you, Makiko-chan."

Makiko looked intently at Minato, before her eyes furtively sought out Masato. He smiled back at his sister widely and chirped out a "Yup!"

 _Jeez… even though they know it's impossible to always be together._

Her voice rang in his head clear as day, and he blinked in surprise, smile faltering for a moment. Quickly he put it back in place as he held her gaze.

 _Well obviously we both just have to learn the Hiraishin whenever Nii-san makes it._

She blinked back at him in her own surprise, and then a smile spread over her own lips. She rubbed the tear streaks from her cheeks as she wrapped her other hand tightly around his. Then she grabbed at one of Minato's hands and squeezed it tightly. "Okay." Her voice shook slightly, but her smile widened. "But… Makiko wants to help Masa-nii and Nii-san too!"

Minato looked clearly relieved as she spoke the first sentence he'd heard from her since the meeting with the Hokage. "That's what Family is for," he assured her brightly. "Now, let's go have a nap, okay?" This was more directed at him, so he nodded in acquiescence. Makiko nodded to after a moment of thought however, not that he was surprised. Her panic had probably worn her right out again.

Minato got easily to his feet, and took hold of his free hand before he ushered them both into the room. There was only one futon, but Maki insisted they could sleep together, so they both settled in next to each other. He didn't mind really. There was plenty of room.

But the measuring looks of the two adults continued to linger right up until the shoji was slid closed again.

Fuck.

They definitely suspected _something_.

* * *

Minato let out a sigh of relief when both of the twins breathing finally evened out into the easy rhythm of sleep. Carefully he disengaged his hand from Makiko, wary that he would wake her. When she continued to sleep easily he rose silently to his feet to slip out of the room.

That had been nerve wracking. When he'd heard Masato making a fuss over seeing Makiko he'd hoped him showing his brother the girl was okay would stop the brewing temper-tantrum in its tracks. He had not expected the way Masato had tried to get Makiko's attention with a one track mind. He sure as hell hadn't thought the boy would start _shouting_ at her either.

That was the least of his worries about the scene though.

He needed to talk to Inokia, and probably Shikatsu as well. Because the way Masato had spoken to their sister made him suspect this wasn't the first time he'd seen her in that state. And that he understood, in some way, what had triggered it. There was also the possibility of Makiko having PTSD which was brought up before.

And then there was how Masato had finally gotten a reaction out of his sister, and how she'd reacted to it. It was almost like she was used to being called that. Girl. Yet she'd started crying again because of it, so somehow it was also upsetting. It was made stranger because Masato had called her 'baka' and the way it had made her tense slightly had made it obvious she had some understanding of what that word meant.

But why would she be used to being called _girl_? Why had that managed to get her to react when she'd been clearly ignoring calls of her name from Masato?

Did he really _want_ to know?

No, it didn't matter if he wanted to or not. If the reason was something that was causing Maki emotional duress, he needed to know it. No matter how unpleasant. Just like he needed to know whatever traumatic event she'd seen or been through, and whatever had triggered her today. How could he avoid a trigger if he didn't know what it was? Or help her overcome it if he needed to? How could he help her without knowing what was wrong to begin with?

So he would find out. And he wasn't going to let the 'adults' reason that he was too young. He was a damn shinobi. He may be just a genin, but a shinobi was considered an adult. And they were _his_ siblings. It was his fucking business.

He wasn't going to back down. He wasn't going to be made to back off. And he sure as hell was going to sit around anymore feeling indecisive and lost on what to do. That wasn't going to get him anywhere, and was just a pathetic waste of time. He'd kept himself together when his dying mother appeared before him. Managed to keep himself going and focused in the following days to get the small Namikaze to Konoha.

Now was not any different. He had to help his siblings. Had to make sure he was there to care for them, protect them, and to help them heal to as was now painfully obvious. Yes. He had a _mission_. One he couldn't afford to fail.

No.

Namikaze Minato _would_ _ **succeed.**_

* * *

 **Word Count:** _5649_

* * *

 _ **To the Reviewers:**_

 _Zeldawolf200 :_ Thanks so much for your concern, I appreciate it. Don't worry about the weekly chapters, I'm definitely up to that. But yeah, your right, it's not a good idea to rush myself, so like I said before the chapter, I'm going to hold off on trying to do two chapters a week for now.

I'm glad you liked the last chapter, and that it accomplished what I hoped it would~

 _Riku Uzumaki :_ Oh yes, baby-sitter Kushina will happen at some point. Can't say when though, that would spoil too much. It's going to be hella cute though~

And maybe sometimes a little _dangerous_

 _Setokayba2n :_ Thanks for letting me know there were things you were unsure about! I already said it to you, but don't hesitate to ask me if something else comes up in the fic you are unsure on~ I'll try and explain to the best of my ability without spoiling anything.

Thanks for reading and reviewing! Hope you keep with us~

 _To all my readers :_ If you guys ever have questions about something, or maybe something I wrote is confusing to you, don't hesitate to let me know! I totally don't mind getting PM's with questions, or you can just mention it in a review. I'll always answer the best I can without spoilers, and you guys letting me know something was confusing will help me improve my writing to avoid doing that in the future (and go back and fix the confusing bits if I can).

 _ **Thank you all for reading & Thanks for the reviews~**_


	14. Ch XII: Interrogation

**A/N:** Hello readers~

I made it! Well, by my time I did. Like barely (a matter of minutes)… sorry to everyone who is already on Wednesday when this goes up! I'm working nights right now, and thought I'd have time to put the chapter up before leaving for work, so didn't do that when I got back to my room to sleep this morning. Of course I ended up sleeping right to the wringer… thankfully I work in front of a computer!

Hope you all enjoy~

* * *

 _Chapter XII:_ **Interrogation**

* * *

When they'd agreed to go on this crazy, no chance to return mission, she hadn't thought they'd end up back here. No doubt he hadn't thought so either, and yet here they were. It wasn't the same as it had been, certainly, but there was no mistaking what this was. He may be standing there, on the grey water, in the form of a toddler, and she in a body to match, but this was their mindscape mash-up. She hadn't really thought to question why she'd been here before… she wasn't really in a frame of mind to even make the realization.

Naruto… Masato looked like he hadn't really thought about it either.

"Are we just going to stand here staring?" She heard child's voice ask. "Or are we going to try and work out what to do? You called me _girl_."

The man-boy grimaced, and then glowered at her. "Well if you hadn't been all stubborn gloom and doom, I wouldn't have had to!" He sounded every bit the petulant child, even though he spoke clearly.

"You _didn't_ have to!" She snapped back in return.

"Yeah, I did!" The male hissed back.

"NO, you didn't!" she shouted with a stomp of her foot, sending water splashing over their ankles.

They both stared at each other, eyes blinking, as it registered for them how ridiculous this was. She let out a snort first, breaking the silence. Then both of them were laughing, much of the tension that had built up falling away. "We sound like five year olds."

"Well, that's pretty mature of us," Masato replied with a snicker. "We're actually _two year olds_." She broke into another peal of laughter at that, even though it wasn't actually that funny. She… they, needed this laugh. They'd both been on edge for months… years, actually. She'd been in fight mode for so very long it seemed.

But could they really let themselves relax completely?

She whipped laugh tears from her eyes, clamping down further jovial sounds as she regarded her brother with a serious expression that just looked out of place on her tiny face. "I get why you said it, Masato… but how the hell are we supposed to explain that one."

He grimaced again. "Well… maybe they won't ask?" But he didn't sound sure of that at all.

"Oh yeah… and maybe Jiraiya will be miraculously cured of his perverseness," she muttered sarcastically. "Come on, Masato. You know as well as I that calling me girl was suspicious, and trained shinobi aren't going to just disregard it."

The blonde boy sighed, and plopped himself down on the water's surface. "Yeah, I know… but maybe it's not that big a deal?"

That was wishful thinking.

"It will be if we can't figure out how to make it _fit_ ," she huffed, squatting in front of him with her arms resting on her knees.

Masato, to her utter shuck, shrugged. "You're thinking about it too hard, Maki. We should just tell them the truth." What? She stared wide eyed, and opened her mouth to protest the thoughtless statement that had just fallen out of her brother's mouth like an after-thought. But seeing the look on her face, he held up his hands in a sort of defense. "Wait… hear me out Makiko!"

She snapped her mouth shut and glared at him, waiting. This better be good.

He remained silent for a few moments more, as if expecting that she wouldn't wait for him to speak after all. Then he put on a grin. "Well, for one thing, it's not like I said another name. I did what kids do when talking to kids they don't know… you know, call them boy, girl, or kid."

That might be true, but it hardly meant anything in this situation! They couldn't act as if they'd only just met each other and learned each other's names… they were twins.

"Makiko, relax, okay? Look… I know it's kind of strange, but they probably aren't thinking 'hey, maybe Makiko and Masato aren't their names', just because I called you girl." That was true she supposed, but they were definitely suspicious about it. "But if they think we just recently got our names, then me calling you girl when I got worked up would make sense."

She blinked, caught a little of guard by such a simple solution. It did make sense though, not that she thought it was exactly the best course of action. "But then that would beg the question of _why_ we just got our names."

Masato nodded. "That's the point though."

What?

"Weren't you trying to figure out how to let them know Haruka was raped?"

"Well… yeah… but what has that go— Oh!"

Masato grinned, and she couldn't help but to smile back. That was rather igneous of him really. "So… if they ask us about you calling me girl, we say that we just got our names not that long ago."

The other blonde nodded and continued. "Then they'll start to wonder why that was. Maybe we can find a way to throw the word rape out there… but even if we don't, I think they'll suspect it as a possibility."

He was right. They probably would suspect it as being possible just from the knowledge that they had been called girl and boy for a large portion of their young lives. It would make the implication that their mother hadn't wanted to give them names… and why wouldn't she want to name them? Because she didn't want them. And any Kunoichi worth her salt would never end up pregnant _accidentally_ , let alone go through the pregnancy if by some fluke she did. Why take herself out of action for a year or more in order to give birth to a child she didn't even want? It didn't make sense.

"Okay… you're right. It's not that bad," Makiko admitted, and then she reached out to poke him with her right hand. "But be more careful not to slip up like that again!"

He grinned back at her, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, "We'll be fine!"

She wished she could be as optimistic as he was. "If you say so… but… well what are we even supposed to be doing?"

He blinked, a little surprised by the question. "Uh… ojiji said we had to change a major part in history."

She rolled her eyes. "I was there two you know, I heard that same as you. But… how do we even go about doing that?"

He shrugged. "We've got time Makiko. We'll figure something out. We always do."

Time.

"We don't really! We don't even know what year this is… and I don't think you can wing changing history, Masa-nii." She was starting to feel anxious again. They'd managed to figure out how to solve one problem, but this one… she didn't even know where to begin!

"Maki, you're thinking about it too much again."

She was not!

Seeming to know what she'd just thought, he rolled his eyes at her. "you are. We've got lots of time on this end of history you know. The history we really know won't even start for over a decade, aside from a few things… I mean, I never did study history that thoroughly."

She hadn't either.

"So you're saying we can't even do anything until after our counterpart here is born?"

He shook his head, and then once more shrugged. "I'm saying that we can't really change history we don't know that well. So the logical thing to do is to plan for things we do know a lot about."

Things they did know a lot about. That was basically the same thing. She almost said as much, until she recalled that she'd grown familiar with a few points in history that had happened before she was born, almost as well as if she'd lived through them. The Kyuubi attack on the night she was born (well she actually did live through that one). The ambush of the original Akatsuki by Ame and Danzo.

"Kanabi Bridge."

* * *

"Did you find anything?"

The toad looked up at him, blinkingly slowly, and croaked "Three bodies."

Three of them. That was a little disconcerting. But he nodded none the less. "How far across the border?"

"A Kilometer," was the croaked reply. He let out a low breath. They'd managed to move a kilometer in the middle of the night, bare footed, and then climbed the statue of Madara. It sounded down right farfetched. Then again, Haruka could have moved the three men away from the border while the twins ran. If those three men were indeed who she had so clearly fought. There was a good chance they were, given that they'd never been pursued during their trip back to Konoha, but it never paid to assume.

"Show me," he commanded the red skinned toad. It nodded, and hopped off without a word, the white haired shinobi a step behind.

* * *

"We're not trying to keep you in the dark, Minato," the bored tone of Shikatsu drawled. He continued to fix the man with a glare, because wasn't that exactly what they were doing by telling him they wanted to question his siblings individually? Without him.

"He's right, that's not what we're doing," Inokia explained in a warmer tone, though he didn't trust that smile at all. "But the twins, Makiko especially, already associate you with _safety_ ," the Yamanaka continued. "If a question upsets them somehow, they'll likely just latch on to you, and expect you'll make whatever they didn't like about it go away."

Why was that a bad thing?

Okay… he knew why that was a bad thing. But he didn't like it one bit. Why did they need to ask questions that might upset his little siblings?

He clenched his hands at his side, still glaring at Shikatsu as he bit out a "Fine." Because he knew the answer to that question too. He really didn't like it, but he knew it. He'd known it since they'd been told to bring Maki and Masa to the Hokage. They were under suspicion.

It wasn't fair. They were just toddlers! What harm could they really do? It wasn't like they could have possibly been trained to infiltrate and spy very much, at under two years of age. Will conditioning for child spies certainly started early, there was only so much they could do before a certain age. The body and mind of a two year old couldn't really accommodate complex thought and actions needed for infiltration missions. A toddler wouldn't even have close to the attention span needed for gathering intelligence.

Granted, both Makiko and Masato had displayed patience that was rather unusual for two year olds. Still, it wasn't of a level to actually believe they were spies. They were two young to have the skills needed to act innocent convincingly… and if they did have those skills, then they would never have showed peculiar patience at all. The fact that they did, in his mind, proved that they had no hidden agenda. They were just more advanced in areas because of the way they'd been raised.

"But you better tell me whatever you find out," He insisted as he stared the Nara down. "Everything." The repeated the word harshly, even though he was well aware that he probably wouldn't be told everything. He was going to have to find out some of it for himself. It was frustrating to admit that, but it wasn't like he didn't understand the whys of it. He knew it all too well.

He was a genin still.

Being a genin meant he was legally viewed as an adult in the village. But it also meant he had the lowest level of clearance when it came to information. He would be told only what it was deemed he should be told, and really he was in hardly any position to demand more information. He felt he had a right to it as their older brother, but whether or not the jounin agreed was another matter.

"We'll pass on everything you need to know," Inokia said easily, and he grimaced. That was exactly what he expected. Everything he _needed_ to know. What he needed to know in their eyes, not his. But he could only nodded. "Masato seems to be awake now, so we'll start with him. It's best to avoid anything that might set Makiko off again for now."

He looked sharply to the sandy blonde haired man, before he nodded again stiffly. He certainly didn't want Maki to be sent into another panic attack. At least they agreed on that, even if they insisted on going through with this damned questioning and treating the little namikazes as if they were trained shinobi.

"I'm going to take Makiko into the garden," he muttered before he turned his back on the two to head back to the room where he'd left his siblings.

"Put a jacket on her. It's a little chilly out," was Inokia's response. He paused for a moment, and then nodded again. The man was right. It wasn't actually that cold, to him, but the twins had hardly any fat on them, and being so young they were probably more sensitive to changing temperatures anyway. He didn't want her to catch a cold. Especially considering she'd just gotten over a fever earlier that day. Still, he thought it would be good for her to be out in the garden, where he hoped he could distract her from the fact that Masato wasn't in sight. If it bothered her, anyway.

Hopefully this time he could manage to play a simple child's game properly.

* * *

 _Hey Makiko_

He tried to think right at his sister when he was being led out of the room by Inokia, to go to the bathroom. After all, he'd heard what seemed like her thoughts quite clearly earlier, and thinking back at her and gained a reaction. At least he thought so.

 _I knew it!_

Her voice rang in his mind, and he almost started grinning. But that would have looked suspicious to the man who was his current chaperone.

 _Guess we can just talk to each other in our heads._ He thought back at her.

 _That makes it sound like were crazy, Masa-nii._ She replied, sounding a little off put. _But this is crazy. I thought speaking in thoughts was just a Yamanaka thing._

She had a point… but didn't the Yamanaka's have to use chakra to do it? _I think this is a little different from what they do… I don't feel like I'm using any chakra._

There was silence following this, and he was pulled into the bathroom where Inokia asked him if he needed any help getting onto the toilet… how embarrassing. It was more embarrassing that he needed help with something else beyond that… he could not wit to have longer arms and legs so he could do these things himself!

 _You're right, it doesn't use chakra_

Makiko's reply came at last, while Inokia was helping him wash his hands. Maybe she'd been trying to experiment with it? It would be nice to know just what they could do with this mind connection the seemed to have. Maybe this was just a result of their mindscape mash-up. Or maybe it was the other way around. The two could be unrelated, but he doubted it. Maybe this was a twin thing… but that doubtful.

 _I'm out in the garden with Nii-san. I think you should be ready for some questions._

He blinked in surprise despite himself, but Inokia didn't seem to notice as he led him back to the room. Just like she said, Maki wasn't there, and he almost didn't say anything, before he realized that would be a mistake. "Where Maki and Nii-san?" He made himself ask, opening his eyes ad big and round as he could as he looked up at Inokia.

The clan head gave him a kind and reassuring smile, ruffling his hair with one hand. He immediately swatted the hand away. "Your Nii-san took Makiko-chan to the bathroom," he replied smoothly, and Masato was instantly aware of what he was trying to accomplish with this. He didn't want Masato to throw a fit like he had when Inoichi had tried to keep him away from Makiko before their name. He was likely hoping to get him sufficiently distracted and not paying attention to how much time passed before he could realize that Makiko had been 'to the bathroom' for much too long.

He should probably fall for it this time. They'd get overly suspicious of him if he foiled their efforts to distract him too often. And it was also best to put an end to any suspicion he'd roused by calling Makiko 'girl' as soon as possible. Still, he couldn't just acquiesce quietly as that would also be suspicious.

"Okay… can we play where the fowers are when Maki back?" He kept his eyes wide as he asked this, and pointed outside in a direction that wasn't quite right, hoping that would be less suspicious than a two year old with a perfect sense of direction in a strange place.

Inokia's smile remained in unerringly in place as he knelt in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "If there's time before super, you two can go play in the garden," he assured him. "But I was hoping you could help me with something first."

He'd expected something like that, but he made himself act surprised, tilting his head to the side and screwing his face up in apparent thought. "Help? What I help?"

"Well you see Masato… we want to help Makiko-chan so she doesn't need to be scared of the 'dark'," The man explained, the smile fading just slightly. He jolted slightly, not having expected this approach. Thankfully Inokia seemed to take that as a sign of him being upset over the mention of Makiko's fear. "I know it must be scary for you too, but do you think you can tell us about what's so scary? For Makiko-chan?"

The man really wasn't beating around the bush any more than he thought he had to, to keep his words understandable for the toddler. He screwed up his face more, and looked down at his feet, hoping he was playing a convincing, unsettled toddler. "Can really help Maki if I say?" He asked in a small voice, clenching his fists into the fabric of his yukata as if he really didn't want to do it, but the man had struck a chord by appealing to a brotherly instinct to help Makiko.

 _You think they're trying to interrogate us separately?_ He thought back to Makiko as he waited for Inokia to respond. The man's response came in the form of him ruffling his hair again, and this time, he didn't swat his hand away.

"I can't say there won't be scary things for her ever again," The man was explaining, being surprisingly candid with that giving he was talking to a toddler. "But we can make the scary things less scary just a little bit at a time, so that maybe one day they won't be scary anymore."

That would be a lot to comprehend for a toddler wouldn't it? At the same time, he didn't want to have to make the man explain it any simpler. So he just needed to screw up his face in thought again and look like he was taking a long time figuring out what he'd just been told. Hopefully it wouldn't be too strange when he responded with a tiny "Okay," after a few minutes.

 _Well, they could be. They aren't trying to ask me questions now though. Maybe they have Nii-san playing distraction._

 _Probably._ He did his best not to outwardly react to his silent conversation with Maki, and made himself look up at Inokia through his bangs instead. The man was giving him a reassuring smile, and gently took one of his hands again. "Thank you Masato," he said softly, and led him over to the futon he'd slept on with Makiko. He lowered himself into a sitting position, cross legged, so he figured he should sit down too. "If something is too scary to say right now though, you don't have to."

Ha. As if. They'd just ask Makiko about it. Or he'd have to sit through an interrogation on it later.

 _Don't blow our cover!_

He almost scowled. _Hey, give me some credit!_

The door to the room slid shut with a thwack, and he jolted at the unexpected sound, eyes snapping towards it. It was just the Nara patriarch… he should have expected that. There was no way he could have expected with the gruff, dark haired man did next however. His intimidating countenance softened with a kind, reassuring smile that was eerily like the one the Yamanaka had been giving him.

He had never thought a Nara could smile like that!

"Okay Masato," Inokia beckoned for his attention again softly, "We're going to ask you things that will tell us stuff we can use to help Makiko-chan." They were really playing into this 'it's to help your sister' thing. It was certainly a smart way to get a kid to answer questions they otherwise wouldn't want to, he supposed. But that didn't change the fact that they were essentially interrogating a toddler. "I want you to try your best to answer everything you can, alright?"

He pursed his lips and nodded, before replying with a short "Okay."

 _Hey! If they're asking you things, you should be thinking them at me! Don't say anything without thinking!_

He exhaled slightly, and nearly glowered at his sisters thought words. _They haven't started asking anything yet. I've got this Makiko… I'm not going to say anything stupid!_

There was a very slight pause, before a more petulant sounding _I still wanna know what they are asking!_ Was thought at him.

 _Fine._ It wouldn't hurt to oblige her with that. And it might be helpful anyway. So they could keep their story straight whenever they asked her the same questions later.

"Have you ever seen Makiko-chan like she was before your nap?" This question came from Shikatsu, rather than Inokia like he was expecting. He swung his head around to look at the man who was just now lowering himself to sit next to the Yamanaka. He almost opened his mouth to say no.

 _Don't say no!_

He blinked. Why shouldn't he say no? Damn… he needed to buy some time so he could figure this one out. "What mean?"

"Can you remember Makiko being so scared she wouldn't talk before?" the rephrased question was provided to him by Inokia now. If they were going to pass of questions and explanations like this he was going to make himself dizzy looking between them.

 _You have to say yes!_ Makiko's slightly panicked voice rang in his head. _You spoke to me as if it wasn't the first time, so it would suspicious if you say no!_

She was right. He nodded, and muttered a small "yeah." But he knew what problem he'd be faced with because of that answer. They'd want to know when, why, and how many times. What could he say to that? It would be easiest if he could use as much of the truth as he could though. The less he had to come up with on the fly the better.

 _What did set you off anyway?_ It was a bit risky to ask, but he needed to know. Maybe he should have waited till later to ask… but perhaps he could use it to come up with an answer. But Makiko's reply to the question didn't come.

"Can you count how many times it's happened?" Inokia continued the questioning. At least this was a question that by nature he could pretend to think really hard about. So he screwed up his face again, and held up one hand as if he was trying to count on his fingers… but remembered he and Makiko had said they could only count to four to Minato. Had that been passed on to the adults?

"Uh," he muttered, trying to play up his struggle of counting. Should he say he couldn't count it, or should he give a number that he 'could' count to?

Makiko was still silent in his mind.

He needed to give an answer. "Three?" Where had that come from? Damn, he wasn't supposed to answer without really thinking about what he was saying. It was too late now, he was going to have to go with that answer.

Crap, they'd just shared a brief look.

"Can you tell us when the last time was?"

He knew they were going to ask that. Damn it. Now what did he sa— "Before Maki got sick." The words left his mouth in the exact moment that he heard Makiko think it at him, but he hadn't tried to say them at all. What the hell?

"Before she got sick? When you were heading to Konoha with Jiraiya-san and your Nii-san?" He just froze, what did he do know? What did he say?

"Yeah," again he hadn't tried to say it, but the word had left his mouth exactly in sync with Makiko's thinking at him. This time his head even nodded.

 _What the hell are you doing?_ He thought back at Makiko desperately.

 _What do you mean? I was just thinking what you should say!_

He almost let out a frustrated sigh, but managed to avoid that blunder. _And I said it, but I didn't even try to,_ he thought back, even as he braced himself for whatever the next question would be. What was Makiko trying to accomplish with what she'd had him say anyway?

"Wasn't it bright out then, Masato?" This question came from Shikatsu, who still had the reassuring smile, but his eyes were sharp. It sort of ruined the look. Well, more than the scarring did on its own.

"… Yeah," because what else could he say. It was day time when that had happened. "but the ants were red."

 _Maki, what the hell are you making me say?_

 _Just trust me, okay?_ She thought back at him, and he cursed her. He didn't like not knowing what the hell she was thinking with this. Couldn't she just tell him?

"The ants were red," Shikatsu repeated, and it looked to him as if the man's eyes had narrowed just a bit more in suspicion. They were supposed to be making them less suspicious, not giving them more reason to doubt them!

Shikatsu and Inokia shared a glance again, and he wondered if they were having a silent conversation of their own, beyond the looks.

"Is Makiko afraid of the colour red?" Inokia asked him, making the question sound rather innocent. But he knew better. It was no less probing than anything else they were asking.

"No," he said with a shake of his head, but again it hadn't been him to do it, "not the colour red."

He could practically feel the weight of their gazes change. _Maki, you're digging us into a hole!_

 _No I'm not!_

He wanted to snap at her that she was, but his mouth opened again to speak. "Maki is scared of the red stuff that comes out when someone gets a really bad boo boo."

Blood? _Why didn't you just tell me to say that to begin with!_

"That stuff is called blood, Masato," Inokia was explaining.

 _I thought maybe they were thinking my unresponsiveness then was some sort of attack like earlier today… I was unresponsive then, wasn't I?_

Oh. Well… that made some sense. But the ants being red? That seemed rather shoe horned in. Could he make that less awkward? What had he done then when they were 'playing' with the ants? He'd had a stick and he was poking the ant hill.

 _You jabbed your stick right in there and they came pouring out… that's the last thing I remember anyway._

So they were supposed to pretend that she'd mistook ants for gushing blood? Still seemed rather weak…. But it was probably the best they had.

"What happened before Makiko got scared then?" The Yamanaka inquired.

"uh," he gave the little thoughtful sound, and once more screwed up his face for effect. "I had a stick," he explained with his brow furrowed to give the impression he was trying really hard to remember. "And I poked the place the ants came out of?" He made it into a question, as if he wasn't sure that was what had happened. He actually wasn't sure. He hoped it was, because they would probably ask Jiraiya to clarify the sequence of events, if they hadn't already. "The ants all came out, then Maki started crying."

Inokia nodded, and Shikatsu's gaze seemed to soften, as if they'd made a connection with that. He hoped it was the one they wanted. That the mass of ants had looked like a lot of blood, and that triggered his sister. He still didn't know what that had actually been about. They seriously needed to talk after this.

"Can you remember how long ago Makiko started being afraid of blood?" This was Shikatsu again, who was still regarding him carefully even if it didn't seem like he was condemning him anymore.

"Lots of days… can't count that many," He replied back almost immediately, and then realized he shouldn't have said it. He should have made a show of thinking about it, or say he couldn't remember when it started. Though not remembering when it started would be a little strange seeing as he had told them he remembered her being scared like that three times. If they thought his quick response was strange, they made no indication of it however. That only worried him more.

"Can you remember what happened then?" the Nara pressed. Of course he would ask that. So what did he say?

 _Remember a couple months ago, when we were attacked by those missing nin? One of them had a kunai embedded in his throat and it sprayed everywhere._

Oh. He didn't remember that exactly, but he remembered that encounter. He'd caught a kunai and cut his hand in the process. But how could he use—ah. That was it. "uh… my hand had a weally bad owie," he explained with a little grimace, and held up his right hand. He pointed at the white line across the palm with his left hand. "Lots of red… bl- blood," he pretended to struggle over saying the new word. "Ka-san put white thing on it, and Maki got scared when she watched Ka-san take it off." Maybe he'd explained that too well? This acting like a convincing toddler was really challenging.

Both of them men were looking at the scar on his hand now, before Inokia turned his gaze back to him, still smiling. He knew the smiles purpose was to keep him, that the thought to be a child, from getting to uneasy… but it rather had the opposite effect. He felt it meant the man didn't trust what he was saying at all. That probably wasn't the case in actuality, he knew, but he had to be on guard for that possibility.

"How did you hurt your hand?"

He'd expected that question too of course… but how did he tell them about it? Although… this could be another to bring up the idea of their mother being raped. They'd already decided to be truthful to an extent on why he'd called her Girl, so he might as well apply it here as well. He looked down, lowering his hand and clenching his fists as if he really didn't like remembering this. "I not hurt it," he murmured softly, knowing the two men would have no trouble hearing it.

"Someone else did?" Inokia provided without missing a beat. He gave a very tiny nod to the words. "Can you tell me about that?"

He made himself wince as if the idea of talking about it scared him, and looked up at the man through his bangs again. "weally bad man… two bad mans," he told them with hesitance in his voice. "grab me. Say things that make Ka-san have weally mean face. Meanest face." He turned his head downward again, and made his body tremble slightly to further support the idea of him being afraid of the memory. "cold and pointy thing give owie… ka-san took and gave them lotsa bad owies. Bad mans no move after."

 _You're brilliant._

He grimaced at Makiko's mental comment, but thankfully it would probably have just looked like it had been at the memory. _Hey, don't distract me. I'm acting!_

Inokia was nodding, and actually looked like he'd had a sort of epiphany. He probably thought he'd just figured out the puzzle of Makiko's earlier panic attack now. He hoped that's what the man thought, anyway. "Thank you Masato. That's really helpful. You don't have to tell us anymore about that, okay?"

He nodded meekly as if he was super relieved. In reality he was disappointed they'd never asked about what the men had said that had made their mother put on the 'meanest face'. "I do have another question for you though," the gruff voice of Shikaku stated. "Can you try and answer it for me?" It was just… bizarre to hear the man speak like that without much changing his tone of voice.

He gave another tiny nod, and waited for the question.

"When Makiko-chan wouldn't respond, you called her girl. Why'd you do that, Masato-kun?"

The Nara's eyes were unreadable with that question. At least, he couldn't read him from what he could see looking up through his bangs. But this was the question he'd been expecting at the beginning. The one they'd actually been prepared for. He looked up and frowned at the man.

"Maki not answer," he stated simply, as if it should be completely obvious that was why.

Shikatsu nodded, and stated "You thought she would answer to girl." He nodded, even though he hadn't actually been asked a question. A toddler wouldn't understand that it hadn't been a question, would they? He didn't think so. "Why did you think Makiko would answer to Girl?"

He tilted his head to the side, and then as innocently as he could replied with "Makiko not always Makiko. Was Girl before."

The eyes of the two men once more pinned him intensely. So much so he almost choked.

"What about you, Masato? Have you always been Masato?" This was Inokia, as the Nara continued to regarding him calculatingly.

"No," he answered with a shake of his head. "Masato was boy, then Ka-san call Boy Masato, girl Makiko."

Again Inokia nodded, as if he'd been given a key piece of a puzzle. "When did your Ka-san call you Masato and Makiko the first time?"

He screwed up his face again at that question, as he was actually trying to think of how to answer it. It didn't hurt to show his uncertainty here, at least he didn't think so. It would hopefully just make his toddler act more convincing. But when did he say it started? He couldn't say the truth this time, because they would think it strange they so easily took to the new names. There needed to be enough time for them to have gotten used to the names so that they called each other them, and not boy and girl.

 _Just show them your scar again_ , Makiko suggested.

That wasn't a bad idea. But raising his scarred hand was a little too clever of a way for a toddler to answer, really. He screwed up his face more. "Said no have to talk about no more," he muttered, and also clenched the scarred hand. Their eyes moved to it like he expected, before they were quickly back on his face.

"Okay Masato," Inoikia said soothingly, as he shifted onto his knees. The man leaned forward and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to talk about that if you don't want to. But it would really help if you could answer just one more question about it." Oh really? He glowered. "Then you can go out and play with Makiko."

One more question huh?

"What?" he muttered, not really sounding like he wanted to answer the question, but more that he wanted this to be over with, with the prospect of being able to go play.

"You said the really bad men said things to your Ka-san that made her put on her meanest face," Inokia broached, and Masato felt a surge of satisfaction at where this was probably going. He had to keep himself from smiling in triumph and continue to glower. "Can you remember what that was? Even just a little bit is fine."

He made a show of thinking really hard again, clenching and unclenching his hands as if he was considering not saying anything because he didn't want to think about it. Then he lowered his eyes back to his knees. "Big word I not know," he pushed out. "and a ww… wr… rrr… a rrr word made Ka-san weally mean." He played at trying to get the correct sound for the beginning of the word. He wanted them to guess at it without him saying it, because a toddler knowing the word rape? That would be pretty suspicious in his mind.

"A word with the rr sound? Can you remember any other sound in it?" This came from Shikatsu.

He shot his gaze over at the man and openly glared. "Said one more! Not Two!"

Inokia in front of him gave his shoulder a little squeeze. "Sorry Masato. It would help us if you could try and remember the word though. Would you do that for Makiko?"

Trying to appeal to brotherly instinct again were they? Well, he'd play along with it. This was something they were hoping for anyway. So he tilted his head, looking back at Inokia with a frown. "… rr.. rr..ah.. Ah sound?" he provided brokenly.

Inokia nodded. "Alright Masato… I know we already asked one more, can you do just one more thing for us?" He glowered again, but slowly nodded. "All you have to do is nod yes, or shake no, if the rr word I say is the one you heard, okay?" Inwardly Masato was grinning.

"kay. Then go play!"

"Then you can go play," Inokia confirmed. "I promise." He nodded to the man's promise. "Alright, ready for the word?" He nodded again, and prepared himself to wince for effect when the word was said.

"Ra—"

* * *

She jolted at the sudden contact of a hand on her shoulder, and blinked her eyes back into focus.

"Makiko, you need to be careful," Minato was admonishing her, and she realized she'd let herself get pulled into what was happening with Masato so deep that she'd not been paying attention to her own feet. She'd almost tripped over a rock, it looked like.

"Sorry Nii-san," she murmured, looking down at her feet guiltily. The boy sighed.

"That's okay, Maki, just be careful now okay?" He looked quite concerned as he squatted down to her level to meet her gaze. She blinked, and then nodded at him, which brought a smile to his face. "Alright… you're looking for something yellow."

Right. She was supposed to be playing a game. She nodded again at her brother, before she cast her gaze about the garden. "Yuh-low," she voiced, as if that would make the yellow thing jump out at her. "Yuh-loow." There was a lot of yellow in the garden. What had she already tried? She couldn't remember. She didn't even remember when he'd the next thing was yellow? There were some yellow flowers right behind the rock she'd almost tripped on though, so she carefully moved around it.

"Colder."

* * *

 **Word Count:** _6707_

* * *

 _ **To the Reviewers:**_

 _mrenteria99_ : I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. I was hoping at least some readers would feel something like that at the 'Girl' bit.

 _Riku Uzumaki :_ yup _,_ Makiko really is a mess, though not so much in this chapter.

 _KaixDecayx :_ Welcome back, and thank you for keeping with the fic!

Masato, well as of right now we aren't going to see much to say there's something going on with him like Maki's apparent PTSD. This chapter answered what Jiraiya is up to as well, if just in a tiny snippet.

I can't say who the father is of course, that would be quite the spoiler. What I can say is it's not any of the well-known baddies from the anime or manga!

 _WhiteVolder :_ Wow, I've never had a review in another language before! This is cool for me. I'm glad you find it interesting~

Hello from Canada!


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